
Gop}Tight}l°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



FARM MANURES 



By 
CHARLES E THORNE, M. S. A. 

Director Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 
ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

LONDON 
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER Gf CO., Limited 



1913 






Copyright, 1913, by 

ORANGE JUDD COMPANY 

All Rights Reserved 



Entered at Stationers' Hall 
LONDON. ENGLAND 



Printed in U. S. A. 



//^ 



AS 4 74 2 8 



PREFACE 

Thirty 3^ears ago Orange Judd Company published 
a little book, written by Joseph Harris, entitled 
''Talks on Manures," a book which was the most 
thoroughly practical discussion of the problems relat- 
ing to the maintenance of soil fertility which had 
appeared up to that date. Written in a most enter- 
taining style, and from the standpoint of the practi- 
cal farmer, it has been of incalculable benefit to the 
agriculture of our country. The book is still abun- 
dantly worth reading, and ought to be in the library 
of every English-speaking farmer. 

At the time when this book was written there was, 
in all the world, just one institution in which the 
soil had been studied by the method of systematic 
field experiment for a sufficient length of time to 
afford data of any scientific value, and Mr. Harris 
made extensive use of these data — the Rothamsted 
experiments — in the preparation of his book. It is 
true that the experiment station at Moeckern had 
been established at about the same time as the one 
at Rothamsted ; but the German investigations had 
been directed almost altogether along the line of 
laboratory research. 

The materials, therefore, for "Talks on Manures" 
were necessarily derived from the experience of 
practical farmers, and while such experience is not 
to be despised, but, on the contrary, must be wel- 



iv' PREFACE 

corned as an indispensable check upon the deduc- 
tions from scientific investigation, yet it lacks the 
accuracy which can only result from long-continued 
work under a systematic method in which the scales 
and measuring rod are in constant use. 

Since the publication of Mr. Harris's book, agri- 
cultural experiment stations have been established 
in practically every civilized country in the world, 
and these institutions are now accumulating a body 
of knowledge which, while still falling far short of 
completeness, is yet affording a much clearer con- 
ception of the nature of the problems under consid- 
eration than was possible to the most advanced 
students of agriculture a generation ago, and it 
would seem to be time that some of the results of 
this work should be arranged in a more convenient 
form for ready reference than is afforded by the 
various bulletins and other publications in which 
they have been published, and this is the reason for 
the publication of this book. 

In the preparation of this volume no attempt has 
been made to treat the subject exhaustively. A few 
paragraphs have been introduced on the origin and 
nature of the soil, which seem to be essential to a 
clear understanding of the effects produced by 
manure ; but it is hoped that these will serve to whet 
the appetite for a more thorough treatment of the 
subject, as given by King, Hilgard, Hopkins, Hall, 
Van Slyke and Merrill. 

It has been necessary to quote some experiments 
with commercial fertilizers, in order to arrive at a 



PREFACE V 

standard of value for manure, but the comprehen- 
sive treatment of this phase of the subject has been 
left to others. 

Even in the branch of the general subject of fer- 
tility maintenance which is treated in the following 
pages — the production and management of farm 
manures — no attempt has been made to include all 
the data available. It has seemed better to limit 
the discussion for the present to such points as have 
been most definitely established by long-continued 
investigation. 

The book is offered with a deep consciousness of 
its many defects, both in arrangement and treat- 
ment, but it is hoped that it may add a little to the 
definiteness of our knowledge ; that it may encour- 
age a larger production and aid in a wiser treatment 
and use of farm manures by the practical farmer, 
and that it may serve as a stimulus to more extended 
and more exact research by the scientific inves- 
tigator. 



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CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. The Origin of the Soil i 

11. The Composition of the Plant 24 

III. The Feeding of the Plant 35 

IV. The Composition of Manure 81 

V. The Production of Manure 94 

VI. The Value of Manure 112 

VII. The Waste of Manure 132 

VIII. The Preservation of Manure 151 

IX. The Reinforcement of Manure 165 

X. Methods of Applying Manure 182 

XL Where to Use Manure 190 

XII. Green Manures 199 

XIII. Planning the Farm Management for 

Fertility Maintenance 218 



Vll 



FARM MANURES 



CHAPTER I 
THE SOIL 

The Origin of the Soil 

The earth a cooling globe — Some astronomers 
believe that the solid earth of today was at one time 
a red-hot, molten mass ; that the water which now 
fills oceans, lakes and rivers existed then only in 
the elemental gases surrounding this fiery ball ; that 
the surface of the globe slowly cooled until a thin 
crust of solid rock was formed; that with further 
cooling the hydrogen of the enveloping gases com- 
bined with oxygen to form the vapor of water; that 
in time the cooling had progressed sufficiently for 
this vapor to condense into a shallow, boiling sea, 
covering the entire surface of the globe; that the 
steam from this hot sea rested upon it in a pall so 
dense as to shut out the light of the sun, and "dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep." 

As the crust of the earth cooled, the mist became 
less dense; in time the light of the sun penetrated 
sufficiently to establish the difference between day 
and night; then the land began to rise from the 
sea; the "firmament" appeared "in the midst of the 
waters, and divided the waters which were under 



2 FARM MANURES 

the firmament from the waters which were above 
the firmament." 

With the gradual cooling of the crust of the earth 
and its consequent contraction, it began to wrinkle, 
as the skin of an apple does in drying; the waters 
were gathered together into seas, and the dry land 
arose between them in low-lying continents, raised 
but slightly above the surrounding, shallow seas ; 
these continents later were traversed by great 
mountain chains as the crust was forced upward by 
the increasing internal contraction. 

The sides of these primeval mountains were 
almost constantly drenched with torrential rains, 
falling from the saturated atmosphere, slowly scour- 
ing away the surface of the rock and carrying the 
detritus to lower levels. Lichens began to grow 
upon the rocks, each plant loosening a few grains 
of the rocky material. In time frost came to the 
assistance of rain and plant roots, and thus by 
forces whose work was almost imperceptible, but 
which had eons of time for its performance, the 
surface of the uplifted mountains was slowly ground 
to powder. 

Other agencies also assisted in the work of soil 
formation. The waters of the primeval seas were 
charged, as they are now, with lime and other min- 
eral substances dissolved from the rocks, and in 
these waters corals and other lime-using forms of 
aquatic life began their work of rock building. Great 
beds of limestone accumulated on the bottom of 
shallow seas, formed by the growth and death of 



Tin-: 0R1(]IN OF THE SOIL 3 

countless myriads of shell-bearing organisms. With 
the continued crumpling of the earth's crust, these 
limestones were sometimes brought to the surface 
and even thrown up into mountains, to be subjected 
to disintegrating agencies by which their surfaces 
were reduced to powder, which was here left in level 
beds on table lands or plateaus, and then carried 
down and rearranged in admixture with the 
detritus from noncalcareous rocks, giving rise to de- 
posits of all gradations, from those rich in lime to 
those in which this substance is found in very small 
proportion. 

The solvent action of water containing traces of 
carbonic acid, as do all waters exposed to the air 
and soil, has been a potent factor in the dissolution 
of the rocks, of limestones especially, and the redis- 
position of their particles in other forms. The 
growth of the higher plants, whose roots also exert 
a solvent action, as may be seen by tracing the 
marks of such roots upon the face of the rocks ; the 
action of earthworms and other earth-burrowing 
forms of animal life, in bringing to the surface ma- 
terials from lower depths, and in actually grinding 
and pulverizing these materials — these have all con- 
tributed to the slow pulverization of the rocky earth 
crust and its conversion into the basis of arable soil. 

Moving ice has also played an important part in 
this work. We have evidence that at one time a 
large part of the North Temperate zone was covered 
with a sheet of ice, hundreds and even thousands of 
feet in thickness which, under the ever accumulat- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 5 

ing weight of arctic snows, moved slowly south- 
ward to meet the sun, by which its southern extrem- 
ity was melted away, forming great, southward 
flowing rivers; or, where it terminated in the open 
seas, breaking off into icebergs, just as the Alaska 
glaciers and the sheet of ice which covers Greenland 
in places to the depth of 2,000 feet, are doing today. 

This southward moving ice carried with it masses 
of rock material, broken from the mountain sides 
along which it passed, or plowed up before it in its 
irresistible course. These materials were deposited 
at its southern extremity, sometimes forming large 
ridges or "moraines" of sand and gravel where the 
glacier's foot had remained for some time, these 
being spread out in sheets of greater or less thick- 
ness as the increasing heat of the sun drove it back 
to the north. 

Glacial action has been a most important factor 
in the formation of the soils of the northern part of 
the United States. By it mountains have been cut 
down and valleys have been filled, the glacial drift 
sometimes reaching a thickness of hundreds of feet, 
and the soil materials have been worked over and 
rearranged by the floods springing from the gla- 
cier's foot, so that glacial soils are generally among 
the richest in their supply of the mineral elements 
of plant nutrition, although the physical condition 
of these soils is often such as to call for the exercise 
of the highest skill of the farmer in drainage, cul- 
tivation and crop rotation, in order to realize their 
full capacity in crop production. 



6 FARM MANURES 

The mineral basis of the soil has been formed 
through such agencies as those suggested above. It 
consists merely of pulverized rock. And that such 
agencies are sufficient to produce the effect ob- 
served cannot be doubted b}^ one who carefully 
studies their workings, bearing in mind that they 
have certainly been at work for tens of thousands, 
probably hundreds of thousands, or even millions, 
of years. But this mineral basis, of itself, does not 
constitute a soil ; that term implies a mixture of 
such a basis with a larger or smaller proportion of 
decomposed organic matter. 

We may grind together a feldspar containing 
potash ; a dolomite containing lime and magnesia ; 
an apatite containing phosphates, and so on until 
we have a combination including all the mineral 
elements which are formed in the plant ; we may add 
to these powdered leather, rich in nitrogen ; we may 
dilute the mixture with pulverized quartz until we 
have a proportion of these elements to each other 
and to the entire mass similar to that which we find 
in the most fertile soils, and we may add distilled 
water until we have brought our artificial soil into 
the most perfect moisture condition for plant 
growth ; but when we attempt to grow plants in this 
soil they will lead but a stunted and miserable exis- 
tence. 

We are familiar with the fact that the herbivorous 
animals are able to thrive upon food materials upon 
which the carnivorous organism Avould starve, and 
to convert these materials into the most nourish- 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 7 

iiig food for the carnivores; but we are only just 
now learning that, just as the herbivores stand be- 
tween the carnivores and the plant, and the plant 
stands between animal life and the soil, so a fourth 
class of organisms is employed within the soil in 
working over the minerals there and preparing 
them for the use of higher vegetation, and that the 
mediation of these organisms, between the plants 
we cultivate and the minerals, is as essential as that 
of the animal which converts these plants into its 
tissues is to the flesh eater. 

The beginning of life occurred as soon as the 
temperature of the primeval seas was reduced to 
such a point as to permit its existence. Before the 
pall of cloud had lifted, the sands of the seashores, 
no doubt, became inhabited with single-celled, col- 
orless plants, such as the bacteria which are now 
revealed to us by the microscope as existing in the 
soil below where light penetrates, and which feed 
directly upon the soil minerals and the free nitro- 
gen of the air which circulates in the upper layers 
of the soil, combining these elements in their tissues 
and leaving them in this combined form as the first 
step towards their final destiny as human food. 

Millenniums passed before the sun's light began 
to penetrate the cloud, during which the ever-falling 
rain washed from the slowly rising- shores much of 
the material combined by these organisms, carry- 
ing it into the sea to become there the nutrient sub- 
stance for the hosts of living things, from the minut- 
est single cell to the leviathan, with which the sea 



8 FARM MANURES 

began to be inhabited; but a part of each minute 
addition to the stock of elementary combination be- 
came fixed in the film of moisture surrounding each 
particle of sand, so that, while the addition to the 
stock of potential plant food in the land was but a 
very minute fraction of that carried into the sea, 
yet there was a steady increase, especially in those 
portions which had risen above the washing of the 
waves. 

Green plants made their appearance with the first 
dawning of light ; probably such plants as the lower 
forms of algae which we find today growing in moist 
and shaded places, and which also, then as now, 
were able to feed directly upon the original minerals 
of the soil and upon atmospheric nitrogen. 

With lowercasing light came the higher forms of 
plant life, first feeding upon the soil food prepared 
for them by the bacteria and algae, but after their 
span of life was ended returning their substance to 
the soil and by their slow decomposition gradually 
reducing the proportion carried to the sea. 

Year after year, century after century, eon after 
eon, this work went on, each advancing age leaving 
a little larger the accumulation of organic remains 
in the soil. 

Worms have also contributed materially to soil 
formation. The cast of a single earthworm, as 
thrown up between a pair of paving bricks, seems 
a very insignificant thing ; but when such casts are 
multiplied by millions, they are no longer insignifi- 
cant, but become a potent factor among the agencies 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 9 

concerned in soil building. For these casts are the 
product of a commingling of mineral particles with 
vegetable matter; these mineral particles are ground 
to a much finer condition in the digestive organs of 
the worms, and- are thoroughly mixed with vegeta- 
ble matter and digestive fluids. 

The countless myriads of insects which have their 
short existence on or in the soil and in the vegeta- 
tion above it have also contributed materially to 
the condition which makes the soil a feeding place 
for the plants we cultivate, through their decay upon 
it. And the same is true of other forms of animal 
life which, after their period of existence is over, 
return their tissues to the elements from which 
they came — earth to earth and air to air.* 

Humus — A heap of bright, yellow straw is built 
in the barnyard ; the farm animals are given access 
to it and consume a part of it, trampling the re- 
mainder under foot; gradually the heap disappears, 
and there is left in its stead a comparatively very 
small quantity of dark material, brown at the sur- 
face and still showing the structure of the straw, 
but black and formless at the bottom. Had the 
straw been spread upon the land and plowed under, 
the same transition into a structureless, black sub- 
stance would have taken place. 

If, now, we separate this black substance, as may 
be done by chemical processes, and subject it to 
analysis, we shall find it containing the mineral sub- 
stances of the original straw, such as may not have 



*See Darwin's " The Formation of Vegetable Mould." 



10 FARM MANURES 

been washed out by rain, together with a consider- 
able but variable percentage of nitrogen, which has 
become fixed in a comparatively stable form. 

This black substance is humus. It is the product 
of the decay of organic matter — vegetable and ani- 
mal — but it is not correct to apply the term humus 
to such matter during the process of decay. The 
humus of the soil is its storehouse of available plant 
food, both mineral and nitrogenous ; plant food that 
has been wrested from the rocks and the atmosphere 
by infinitesimal agencies working through eons of 
time, and stored for the use of humanity ; plant food 
which we may so utilize as to return it to the soil 
undiminished or even increased in quantity, or 
which we may so waste as to leave to those who fol- 
low us a sadly diminished heritage. 

The skeleton of the soil consists of grains of sand 
or minute fragments of the rocks from which the 
soil has been derived, (The larger fragments, or 
gravel, are not, properly speaking, parts of the soil.) 
This mineral skeleton may consist of particles so 
coarse as to be easily discernible, or of atoms of 
silt or clay so minute that they can only be sepa- 
rately distinguished by the aid of the microscope ; 
but in either case it is upon these separate particles 
that the forces impinge which control the growth of 
vegetation. Practically all soils contain particles 
of different degrees of fineness, the space between 
the larger ones being occupied by smaller ones of 
silt and clay and by fragments of decaying vegeta- 
tion. Whether the soil be classed as sandy, loamy 



THE ORIGIN OF Tllli: SOIL II 

or clayey depends upon the relative proportion and 
character of the coarser and finer particles. 

Whatever the size of the particles, it is upon their 
surfaces only that the various forces act which pre- 
pare the food for the plant — the soil water, in which 
that food is dissolved; the air which furnishes oxy- 
gen for the conversion of the insoluble mineral mat- 
ter into soluble oxides; and the soil organisms, 
whose growth transforms the inert soil nitrogen into 
active nitrates, and the mineral elements into avail- 
able forms. 

The size of the soil particles is an important fac- 
tor in determining the rate at which the plant food 
is made available. F. H. King has shown that the 
surface area is in inverse proportion to the size of 
the particles. For example, a marble, i inch in 
diameter, would have a superficial area of 3.1416 
inches, and a cubic foot of such marbles would have 
a total area of 37.7 square feet, while a cubic foot 
of soil grains .001 inch in diameter, would have an 
area of 37,700 square feet, or nearly an acre. Hence, 
a fine-grained soil exposes a very much larger sur- 
face to solvent action than a coarse-grained one, so 
long as the size and condition of the particles are 
such that they move freely upon each other and 
allow water to penetrate their interstices, as sands 
and silts. In clays, however, the soil particles are 
so fine that the water cannot circulate freely ; hence 
a clay may be rich in the mineral elements of fertility. 
and yet its physical condition may be such that its 
plant food will be yielded up "to the growing crop 



12 FARM MANURES 

with extreme slowness; while a sandy soil, though 
showing under analysis smaller quantities of the 
elements essential to crop production, may yet give 
larger yields. 

When, however, the texture of the clay is altered, 
by manuring or by the turning under of vegetation, 
it often becomes more productive than the naturally 
looser soils. 

On the other hand, in a coarse, sandy soil the par- 
ticles are separated by such large interstices as to 
permit too easy a passage for the rain water, and it 
passes below the reach of the plant roots before it 
becomes sufficiently saturated with the mineral ele- 
ments required for plant nutrition. 

For both classes of soils the remedy is the same, 
the incorporation of vegetable matter. Such mat- 
ter loosens the clays by separating their particles, 
and makes the sands more compact by filling their 
interstices with finer material, while its decay not 
only furnishes plant food directly, but also serves 
indirectly to bring the soil and atmospheric elements 
into combinations available for plant sustenance. 

The cycle of life — A dead animal, lying exposed in 
summer weather, is soon attacked by flies, whose 
maggots devour the carcass, converting the carbon, 
oxygen and nitrogen of its dead tissues into their 
own living substance. A dead plant, covered with 
a few inches of soil, is attacked by millions of micro- 
scopic plants (bacteria), which consume its tissues, 
recombining the carbon, oxygen and nitrogen of those 
tissues into the protoplasm which fills their cells. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 1 3 

The maggots are transformed into flies and these, 
if not devoured by other animals, live out their cycle 
of existence and then are consumed by molds and 
these in turn by bacteria. Bacteria also may be con- 
sumed by other organisms (amoebae), as has quite 
recently been shown at the Rothamsted experiment 
station, or they may reach their natural life limit — 
a matter of a few hours, probably — when their cells 
will be decomposed with the formation of oxides 
of nitrogen and carbon (nitric and carbonic acids), 
the nitric acid to be absorbed by the soil water and 
carried to the roots of growing vegetation, if there 
be such vegetation in the vicinity, otherwise to be 
carried into the drainage or separated into its ele- 
ments; the carbon dioxide to escape into the free 
air, there to be captured again by the foliage of 
green-leaved plants. 

In some such way as this the never-ending cycle 
of life moves on ; the aztobacter seizing upon the 
surfaces of the soil particles and combining their 
phosphorus, potassium and calcium with atmos- 
pheric nitrogen ; this combination to be passed on to 
the higher plants, which add to it the carbon diox- 
ide of the air; these plants to be consumed by the 
herbivores and their tissues to be converted into 
bone and nerve and milk and muscle ; the herbivores 
to serve as the food of the carnivores, and these in 
turn to feed the worm, and the worm the bacteria, 
the cycle thus returning to the plane from which 
it started. 



14 farm manures 

Geological Classification of Soils 

The geologist classifies soils in four principal 
groups, according to their origin, namely : Sedentary 
or residual soils, or those which have been formed 
where they now lie by the decomposition of the 
underlying rock ; alluvial soils, or those which have 
been transported by rivers and deposited upon their 
flood plains — soils to which the farmer applies the 
name "bottom lands" ; glacial or drift soils, or those 
which owe their origin to the action of moving ice, 
by which agency a part or all of their material has 
been transported for long distances and deposited 
at the foot of continental glaciers ; and seolian or 
loess soils, which have been formed from dust blown 
by the wind. 

Residual soils vary greatly in quality, owing to 
the character of the rocks from which they have 
been derived. Thus the soil of the famous *'Blue 
Grass" region of Kentucky is due to the weathering 
of the underlying limestone, while in other places 
sandstones, shales and granites have given origin to 
soils of very different character. In fact, it is a 
matter of general observation that soils formed 
wholly or in part from limestone are, as a rule, much 
more productive and more durable than those de- 
rived from noncalcareous rocks, although it some- 
times happens that a limestone soil has been so im- 
providently managed that its natural superiority has 
vanished. 

Alluvial soils — The superior fertility of alluvial 



Tin-: ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 1 5 

or bottom lands has been recognized since man be- 
gan to till the soil, and the cause of this superiority 
is easily understood by one who observes the turbid 
streams which course down every hillside in times 
of freshet, carrying down the wealth of the high- 
lands and spreading it over the flood plains of the 
rivers. It is no unusual thing to see such deposits 
reach a thickness varying from a quarter to half an 
inch, after an ordinary spring flood of today, and 
our floods are evidently much smaller than those 
of former days, as shown by the greater width of 
the earlier flood plains, which include the second 
and third bottoms, so called, or the river terraces. 
Only a tenth of an inch annually would mean ten 
inches in a century or a hundred inches in a thou- 
sand years, but in geologic time "A thousand years 
are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch 
in the night." 

Drift soils are variable in character, consisting 
sometimes of the weathered surfaces of beds of 
gravel containing a great deal of limestone, forming 
soils naturally underdrained and rivaling the best 
limestone soils in productiveness, while sometimes 
they are found lying on heavy sheets of bowlder 
clay, rich in the mineral elements which enter into 
the food of the plant, but requiring drainage and 
aeration to bring this potential food into an available 
condition. Sometimes the drift is so modified by 
the rock upon which it lies as to possess the chief 
characteristics of a residual soil. 

Loess soils have been formed under climatic con- 



1 6 FARM MANURES 

ditions approaching aridity. It may seem a mystery 
to the farmer in humid climates that soils even a 
hundred feet in thickness should have been formed 
from fine particles of dust, blown by the wind, but 
the mystery will disappear after he has spent a dry 
summer on the treeless plains of the semi-arid 
regions, and watched the clouds of black dust which 
follow the plowman, filling eyes, nose, ears and 
mouth, and covering face and hands with such a 
coating as only coal heavers carry in the humid 
climates. 

A considerable part of the deep, black soils of the 
rolling prairie region between the Mississippi and 
the mountains is of this character. Loess is not 
always black, but is sometimes of much lighter 
colors, containing a larger proportion of clay; as, 
for example, the blufifs of the lower Mississippi. The 
loess soils are very fine grained, and are usually well 
stored with the elements of fertility. 

Sand dunes are another example of seolian soils, 
but they are much coarser grained, and contain 
comparatively little matter of vegetable origin. 
They are as conspicuous for their poverty as the 
loess soils are for fertility. 

Agricultural Classification of Soils 

From the earliest ages farmers have based their 
classification of soils upon the fineness of the parti- 
cles into which the mineral constituents may be 
divided, the relative proportion between the mineral 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL I7 

and organic constituents, and the degree of decom- 
position which these latter have undergone. Thus 
we have sandy soils, in which the mineral particles 
are relatively large, and clays, in which they are im- 
palpably -small, with an intermediate class called 
silts. When a considerable proportion of organic 
matter is found in the soil, we call it a loam, and 
we use the terms "sandy loam," "silty loam" and 
''clay loam" to indicate the condition of the pre- 
dominant mineral constituents. The organic mat- 
ter may constitute so large a proportion of the soil 
as to change its color to black, giving us black sands, 
silts and sometimes clays ; a still greater proportion 
of organic matter produces muck soils, and these pass 
into peats, which are composed so largely of partly 
decayed vegetation that they burn readily when 
dried, and may be used for fuel. 

The Inhabitants of the Soil 

The modern science of bacteriology has demon- 
strated that the soil is inhabited by numerous spe- 
cies of micro-organisms, which play a very impor- 
tant part in the conversion of its stores of plant 
food into available form, and in the fixation of at- 
mospheric nitrogen. These organisms are single- 
celled plants, extremely minute in size, colorless 
when they live below the surface, or green in the 
case of some low forms of algae found at the surface 
of the soil. 

The first forms of life — Such organisms, growing 



l8 FARM MANURES 

in the sandy beaches of the primeval seas, were 
probably the first forms of life upon the earth. In 
these sands they would find the mineral elements 
essential to their growth, and they would necessarily 
have the power, possessed by similar organisms to- 
day, of fixing the free nitrogen of the air circulating 
between the particles of sand. In the slow grind- 
ing of the rocks into sand and silt they are con- 
stantly washed by waves or rain, so that their 
soluble portions are extracted and removed. A 
beach sand or freshly ground rock makes but a 
barren soil, and the washing of the rock powder 
increases its barrenness ; hence the play of other 
than physical and chemical forces is required before 
the barren rock is converted into productive soil. 
The first of these forces is undoubtedly bacterial 
growth, which serves as the forerunner to the 
growth of higher organisms. Not only is it probable 
that certain bacteria are able to assimilate mineral 
as well as nitrogenous matters which the higher 
plants cannot appropriate, but their minute size en- 
ables them to penetrate interstices between soil par- 
ticles which are closed to the roots of higher plants. 
For example, it has been shown that the particles 
of clay are not larger than one five-thousandth of an 
inch in diameter; but some of the soil bacteria are 
not more than one-sixth as large as these clay par- 
ticles, and hence are indefinitely smaller than the 
smallest plant roots. 

Nitrification — Another function performed by 
soil bacteria is the breaking down of dead vegetable 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL I9 

matter in the soil and the conversion of its nitrogen 
into nitric acid. This work has been shown to be 
due to the action of organisms which grow upon 
such matter, appropriating its carbon and causing 
the combination of its nitrogen with oxygen, form- 
ing nitric acid. 

For centuries saltpeter, which is nitrate of potash, 
was made by mixing loam with manure and ashes, 
allowing the material to lie in heaps for two or three 
years, shoveling it over occasionally and watering 
with liquid from the barnyard, but protecting it from 
excess of rain, and finally leaching it out and evap- 
orating the lye. 

In 1862 Pasteur suggested that the combination 
of nitrogen with oxygen and potassium which takes 
place in the formation of saltpeter is due to the 
action of bacteria, and in 1877 Schloesing and Muntz 
confirmed this view, their work being supported by 
later investigations by Winogradsky, Warington 
and others. 

These investigations have shown that nitrification 
takes place only in summer weather, that it may be 
suspended by heating the material to 212 degrees 
Fahr., or by treating it with powerful antiseptics, 
and that in material which has been sterilized by 
these methods nitrification may again be set up by 
inoculating with fresh material, thus proving that 
the agent of nitrification is a living germ. 

Conditions essential to nitrification — In order that 
nitrification may take place there must be organic 
matter in the soil — that is, material carrying nitro- 



20 FARM MANURES 

gen ; there must be summer temperature ; there must 
be a moderate degree of moisture, but excessive 
moisture is as unfavorable to the work of these or- 
ganisms as it is to that of some higher plants ; 
finally, there must be lime or some other similar 
alkaline base, with which the freshly formed nitric 
acid may combine, forming a neutral salt; other- 
wise the increasing amount of nitric acid will in 
time have a toxic action upon the organisms form- 
ing it and thus stop their work. 

The corn crop makes its growth in midsummer 
just when the conditions are most favorable for 
nitrification. It thrives best in soils heavily charged 
with organic matter, and the cultural methods em- 
ployed with this crop are such as are calculated to 
stimulate this process. This explains the fact that 
a crop of corn will extract from the soil twice as 
much nitrogen as an equivalent crop of wheat. 

The products of nitrification are known as 
nitrates. In the old niter bed the chief product was 
nitrate of potash ; in ordinary soils it is nitrate of 
lime, although nitrates of other alkalies, such as 
potash and soda, are no doubt formed to a limited 
extent. These nitrates are soluble salts, and in 
humid countries if they are not utilized by growing 
plants they will be washed out of the soil by the 
rains of the fall and spring. For this reason there 
is a great waste of fertility from bare corn-stubble 
land, for the corn is killed by the first frosts, at a 
time when nitrification is still active. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 21 

When winter wheat follows corn this waste is 
prevented, the wheat utilizing the nitrates which 
have accumulated after the corn has ceased growing. 
The same object may be accomplished by sowing 
rye in the corn at the last working, the rye to be 
turned under in the spring. A Teguminous crop 
would be more desirable for this purpose, as it would 
not only utilize the ready-formed nitrates in the soil, 
but would add more nitrogen, as will be shown far- 
ther on ; the practical difficulty, however, is to find 
a frost-resisting legume having seeds sufficiently 
large to resist the drouths which frequently occur 
during the months of August and September. The 
hairy vetch is one of the most promising plants for 
this purpose, and may be sown with rye. 

Symbiosis — A third class of soil-improving bac- 
teria is that which forms the nodules found on the 
roots of the clovers, beans, peas and other plants 
of the order Leguminosse. From the earliest history 
of agriculture the observation has been recorded 
that the growing of clover leaves the soil in better 
condition for subsequent crops. 

When the physiology of plants and the chemistry 
of their nutrition began to be understood it was as- 
sumed that these plants were able to absorb and 
assimilate the free nitrogen of the atmosphere 
through their foliage, just as all plants utilize the 
carbonic acid of the air in the building of their car- 
bonaceous tissues. 

This theory, however, was completely overthrown 
by a series of epoch-marking experiments made by 



22 FARM MANURES 

Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh at the Rothamsted experi- 
ment station, from 1857 to i860, by which it was 
shown that, when the atmosphere was made the 
only possible source of nitrogen to growing clover 
plants, their growth was limited to the amount of 
nitrogen carried in the soil. 

This work was taken up about 25 years later by 
Hellriegel and Wilfarth, who found that leguminous 
plants grown in a soil devoid of nitrogen would 
make a normal growth when watered with leachings 
from an old loam, but when this normal growth 
occurred the roots were found to be the homes of 
bacteria.* 

At least three general classes of soil organisms, 
therefore, are concerned in the accumulation and 
preparation of nitrogenous material for the sus- 
tenance of the higher plants. These are (i) the 
organisms which exist independently in the soil, 
obtaining their mineral food directly from the sur- 
face of the soil particles, and their carbon and nitro- 
gen from the air circulating between these particles ; 
(2) the nitrifying organisms which live upon the 
dead organic matter in the soil, appropriating its 
carbon, nitrogen and oxygen ; and (3) the organisms 
Avhich inhabit the nodules of the legumes, obtaining 
their mineral and carbonaceous food from the juices 
of their host plants and their nitrogen from the air. 



* For history of the experiments by which the agency of bacteria in en- 
abling clover to assimilate free nitrogen was discovered, see Experiment Station 
Record, vol. II, p. 686. For that of the discovery that nitrification's due to 
the action of bacteria, see Bui. No. 8 of the Office of Experiment Stations, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture ; and for investigations on the direct assim- 
ilation of free nitrogen by soil bacteria, see Bui. No. 66 of the Delaware Ex- 
periment Station. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 



23 



The microbes of the nodules are, therefore, para- 
sitic in their first attack, and the plant suffers; but 
in a short time a secondary form makes its appear- 
ance within the nodules, much larger in size than 
the bacteria, and apparently due to accumulation of 
nitrogenous material resulting from the death of the 
bacteria, and which serves to supply the host plant 
with nitrogen. 

We have as yet no very definite knowledge as to 
the amount of nitrogen which may be added to the 
soil by either the first or third of these classes of 
organisms— the second class adds none, merely 
working over the supply already in the soil— but 
the very great increase of crop produced by nitrog- 
enous fertilizers in the long-continued experiments 
at Rothamsted indicates that the addition of nitro- 
gen by the first class is quite small; while in the 
experiments of the Ohio experiment station the 
growth of a heavy crop of clover apparently fur- 
nishes little more than enough nitrogen to satisfy 
the demands of the one crop immediately following 
the clover. 



CHAPTER II 

The Composition of the Plant 

The living plant is chiefly water — When freshly 
cut grass is allowed to lie for a few hours in the 
sunshine of a summer day it loses from two-thirds 
to three-fourths of its original weight. This loss 
consists simply of water, which is vaporized by the 
heat and dissipated into the atmosphere. The water 
thus lost is, in fact, the liquid in which are dissolved 
the nutrient materials required for the growth of 
the plant, and which are carried upward through 
its tissues and left behind as the water itself passes 
out into the atmosphere. For the water does not 
leave the cut grass any more rapidly that it has been 
leaving the standing grass ; and the cutting of the 
grass has merely cut off the supply of water from 
below, which has heretofore kept the tissues turgid. 
An acre of growing grass or similar crop is there- 
fore sending into the atmosphere in summer weather 
several tons of water daily. It is estimated that on 
the average 300 pounds or more of water passes up 
through the plant for every pound of dry matter 
added to its substance. 

The dry substance — If, now, the air-dry hay thus 
made be placed in a ventilated oven, heated to the 
temperature of boiling water, and kept at that tem- 
perature for a few hours, it will be found to have 

24 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE PLANT 25 

suffered an additional loss, amounting to from lo 
to 15 per cent of its air-dry weight. This loss also 
consists of water — hygroscopic water. Since the 
atmosphere itself always contains more or less mois- 
ture, it is easily understood that no substance ex- 
posed to the air can be absolutely dry. When we 
compare the absolutely dry plant with the green 
one, we find that from 75 per cent to more than 90 
per cent of the original green weight has disap- 
peared. The residue left is chemically known as dry 
matter or dry substance. 

Carbon — If this dry substance be subjected to a 
red heat for some time, in a vessel so arranged that 
the gases of combustion may escape but that no air 
can enter, it will be found to have been converted 
into charcoal, a substance which may retain the 
form and structure of the original material, but 
which has less than one-third of its dry weight, and 
which consists of the element carbon, together with 
the mineral elements found in the plant. 

Ash — Finally, if this charcoal be heated at red 
heat with free access of air, it also will disappear, 
leaving only a small residue of ash, amounting usu- 
ally to not more than two per cent of the original 
weight of the living plant. This ash contains all of 
the material which the plant has obtained from the 
earthy matter of the soil. It is true that the water 
which has carried this earthy matter through the 
growing tissues of the plant was contained in the 
soil, but not as a necessary part of it. It is also 
true that the nitrogen, which constitutes an impor- 



26 FARM MANURES 

tant percentage of the plant tissues, is also carried 
Into the higher plants through their roots ; but the 
ultimate source of the supply of both water and 
nitrogen is the atmosphere and not the soil. 

Ash elements essential — We find, therefore, that 
of the total substance of the living plant, approxi- 
mately 98 per cent has been derived from the 
atmosphere, and only about two per cent from the 
soil ; but this small proportion of mineral substance 
which the soil contributes is as essential to the 
growth of the plant as is the somewhat larger pro- 
portion of similar substances to that of the animal. 
In both orders of beings the ash elements compose 
the skeleton, which serves to co-ordinate and give 
form to the more evanescent substances derived 
from, and returning on dissolution to, the atmos- 
phere. It is not only ''earth to earth and dust to 
dust," but air to air as well. 

Components of the ash — Of the elementary sub- 
stances found in plants, 12 are obtained from the 
soil — namely, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, cal- 
cium, magnesium, sodium, iron, sulphur, chlorine 
manganese, aluminum and silicon. Three others — 
namely, carbon, oxygen and hydrogen — are obtained 
directly from the atmosphere, being absorbed by 
the foliage, or taken in through the roots as water. 
Of these 15 elements only the four first named 
require consideration under ordinary conditions. 

Oxygen and nitrogen are mixed together in the 
atmosphere in the proportion of one part oxygen to 
four of nitrogen ; but while it has been proven that 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE PLANT 2/ 

the plant may absorb and use the oxygen of this 
mixture, through the stomata or breathing pores 
on the underside of its leaves, it can only use the 
nitrogen after that has been chemically combined 
with oxygen in nitric acid. 

Chemical combination — It is important to under- 
stand the difference between simple mixture and 
chemical combination. Water, for example, is a 
chemical combination of oxygen with hydrogen, the 
two gases being combined in the proportion of one 
volume of oxygen to two of hydrogen. Nitric acid 
is a combination of the two principal gases of the 
atmosphere, in the proportion of one volume of 
nitrogen to three of oxygen. In a simple mixture 
the component parts retain their original character- 
istics, but a chemical compound possesses properties 
wholly different from those of its components. 
Thus oxygen is a supporter of combustion ; so active 
is it in this respect that a piece of iron wire, heated 
to a red heat and introduced into a jar of pure oxy- 
gen gas, will burn with the evolution of intense 
light and heat. Hydrogen is also a combustible gas, 
being one of the constituents of illuminating gas ; 
but when oxygen and hydrogen are combined in 
water, we have the universal extinguisher of com- 
bustion. In like manner, the air we breathe, which 
is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, when its com- 
ponents are combined in certain proportions, be- 
comes nitric acid, one of the most corrosive of acids. 

Of the mineral elements above named, iron and 
sulphur are the only ones which exist in the earth 



28 FARM MANURES 

in uncombined form ; all others, except chlorine, be- 
ing combined with oxygen, or with this and some 
other element, in the forms in which we know them. 
Thus potassium combined with oxygen is known 
as potash ; sodium with oxygen as soda ; calcium 
with oxygen as lime; magnesium with oxygen as 
magnesia; iron with oxygen as iron oxide, or rust; 
silicon with oxygen, as silica, or quartz; sulphur 
with oxygen, as sulphuric acid, and phosphorus with 
oxygen as phosphoric acid. Chlorine unites with 
various elements, forming chlorides, the most famil- 
iar example of which is sodium chloride, or common 
salt. 

The ultimate source of all the mineral elements 
is the rocky crust of the earth, in which they are 
held, not in their elementary condition, nor often in 
the simple compounds above mentioned, but in more 
complex combinations. Thus phosphoric and sul- 
phuric acids are found only in combination with 
other substances, chiefly with lime and iron, giving 
the various phosphates, sulphates and sulphides ; 
potash and soda are found in feldspar, one of the con- 
stituents of granite, as well as in deposits of salt. The 
world's chief supply of commercial potash comes from 
mines in Germany, where it is found combined with 
chlorine, as muriate (chloride) of potash, or with sul- 
phur in kainit and sulphate of potash. Beds of com- 
mon salt are widely distributed. Lime is united 
with carbon in limestones, and these generally con- 
tain also more or less magnesia ; iron is a constituent 
of hornblende and mica; sulphur is combined with 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE PLANT 29 

lime in gypsum, with iron in pyrites (a mineral 
often mistaken for gold), with soda in glauber salts, 
and with magnesia in Epsom salts. 

The nitrogen of the soil has been derived from 
the nitric acid and ammonia brought down by rain, 
and from the work of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the 
soil, agencies which, acting through countless ages, 
have slowly accumulated and stored in the soil, 
chiefly in the form of the remains of former vegeta- 
tion known as humus, a few thousand pounds of 
nitrogen per acre. 

These are a few of the many different forms in 
which the elements of plant food exist in the soil. 
It is evident that if these elements are to serve 
the purpose of plant nutrition for an indefinite period 
they must be stored in such form that they can be 
dissolved by the soil water, and yet this solution 
must take place only so fast as they can be utilized 
by growing plants ; otherwise they would be carried 
into the drainage and thence to the sea, and the 
land would eventually become sterile. And in fact 
the maintenance of a successful husbandry depends 
upon so adjusting the cropping, fertilizing and gen- 
eral management of the soil that it shall meet the 
demands of the crops grown upon it, and yet shall 
not suffer waste. 

Atmospheric elements— The plant constituents 
derived from air and water are four — oxygen, nitro- 
gen, carbon and hydrogen. The air we breathe 
is a simple mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, in the 
proportion of about one part of oxygen to four of 



30 



FARM MANURES 



nitrogen. In this colorless gas is disseminated wa- 
tery vapor, also colorless and invisible when the sky 
is clear, but under certain conditions condensing 
into clouds from which it falls as rain or snow. The 
air also contains a relatively small quantity of 
a combination of carbon and oxygen — the carbonic 
acid gas of the older chemistry, carbon dioxide of 
the newer. From this carbon dioxide of the atmos- 
phere has been derived the entire carbon supply of 
the earth, not only that found in the tissues of vege- 
tation, but also that stored in the world's beds of 
coal and its strata of limestone. 

Carbon absorbed through the foliage — The foliage 
of the plant is constantly bathed with an atmosphere 
carrying- carbon dioxide ; this is absorbed by the 
leaves, decomposed by the plant, and combined with 
the elements of water, with nitrogen, and with the 
ash elements held in solution in the stream of water 
passing upward through the plant, and out of these 
materials are elaborated the starches, sugars, fats 
and proteid matters by which animal life is sus- 
tained. 

Fixation of nitrogen — The earlier chemists as- 
sumed that nitrogen also was absorbed by the plant 
through its foliage from the inexhaustible supply in 
the atmosphere, but this has been definitely proven 
to be wrong, so far as the plants we cultivate are 
concerned. We now know that nitrogen must first 
enter into combination before it can be utilized by 
the plant. Nitrogen is combined in small quantity 
with the elements of water during thunderstorms, 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE PLANT 3 1 

producing nitric acid and ammonia, which are 
washed into the soil. The quantity produced in this 
way, however, is too small to be of material impor- 
tance in agriculture. The investigations of the 
Rothamsted experiment station have shown that the 
total quantity of nitrogen reaching the soil annually 
in this way, including a small portion which falls 
in the particles of dust in the air in the form of 
organic nitrogen, amounts to about five pounds per 
acre, and that it comes chiefly in the form of am- 
monia. 

The plant's food must be combined — The higher 
plants do not assimilate their food in the elemen- 
tary form, but the mineral elements as well as the 
nitrogen must first enter into combination. Nitro- 
gen is believed to be utilized by such plants only 
in the combination with oxygen known as nitric 
acid, the combination of nitrogen with hydrogen in 
ammonia being oxidized to nitric acid before it can 
be assimilated. Phosphorus is combined with oxy- 
gen in phosphoric acid, but this is further combined, 
usually with lime, before being absorbed by the 
plant. Potassium combined with oxygen is known 
as potash, but this combination does not exist as 
such in the soil, except in very small quantitv result- 
ing from the slow oxidation of feldspar and other 
rocks of which it is a constituent. Calcium and oxy- 
gen are combined in lime, and lime again combines 
with water and carbonic acid on exposure to the 
air, producing calcium carbonate, in which form 
it exists in ordinary limestones. Other combina- 



32 FARM MANURES 

tions of lime, less frequently found, are the deposits 
of phosphate of lime found in some of the southern 
states and in a few other limited regions, and those 
of sulphate of lime, or gypsum. In the first of these 
the carbonic acid is replaced by phosphoric acid, 
and in the second by sulphuric acid. 

Evaporation removes from the plant nothing but 
water, hence the substances which the water has 
carried upward in solution are left behind when it 
is evaporated from the foliage, to be recombined in 
the tissues of the plant, with the carbon dioxide 
which has been absorbed through its foliage, and 
out of the combinations thus formed are built the 
innumerable vegetable compounds, with their vary- 
ing properties. 

These compounds have been arranged in five gen- 
eral groups or classes, according to their composi- 
tion or physical structure — namely, crude fiber, 
nitrogen-free extract, ether extract, proteids and 
ash. 

Crude fiber is found in all parts of the plant and 
gives to it its form and structure. It is composed 
of carbon, combined with the elements of water. 
It may be comparatively soft and succulent, as in 
vegetables and young growth, or hard and woody. 
In the ordinary feeding stuffs it furnishes more or 
less digestible substance. 

Nitrogen-free extract — This group includes the 
starches, sugars and similar bodies, which are com- 
posed of the same three elements as the crude fiber. 
In analysis the separation of the two groups is gov- 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE PLANT 33 

erned largely by the strength of the solvent used. 
Usually a much larger proportion of the substances 
belonging to this group is digestible than of the 
crude fiber, -but that portion which is digestible is 
assumed to have the same nutritive value in the 
two groups. The term ''carbohydrates" is fre- 
quently used to designate the digestible part of the 
two groups. 

Ether extract — This group includes the oils, wax, 
resins and similar substances soluble in ether. In 
grains and seeds this extract is chiefly oil, and the 
term ''fats" is frequently used to designate the 
group. The chief function of the fats and carbo- 
hydrates is the production of heat and work. For 
this purpose a pound of digestible ether extract is 
estimated to be about as effective as 2.4 pounds of 
digestible carbohydrates. 

The proteids — This group is composed of bodies 
which contain nitrogen and sulphur in addition to 
the three elements mentioned above. Egg albumen 
is a familiar proteid, and the earlier chemists gave 
the name albuminoids to the class. Later the term 
protein compounds was used to designate it, but 
with progress in chemical knowledge the word pro- 
teid has been substituted as being more inclusive, 
while the group has been subdivided into smaller 
ones — the albumins, globulins, albuminates, etc. 
Proteids are also found in the animal organism, and 
it is believed that these are derived with very little 
change from those of the plant. Since nitrogen is 
as mdispensable to animal as to plant life, and since 



34 FARM MANURES 

the animal is entirely unable to utilize the elemen- 
tary substances, as also the simpler compounds 
which serve the plant, such as carbon dioxide and 
nitric acid, it is evident that the proteids occupy a 
very important place among animal nutrients. The 
proteids not only serve for the upbuilding of nitrog- 
enous tissues in the animal organism, but they may 
also be converted into fat, the nitrogen and sulphur 
being eliminated. 

The ash — While the mineral elements are 
grouped in a class by themselves in the process of 
chemical analysis, it must not be understood that 
they exist as a separate class in the plant. On the 
contrary, the ash elements are essential constituents 
of every living cell, whether plant or animal. Starch 
and sugar may exist as independent granules within 
the cells, but the protoplasm with which these gran- 
ules are surrounded, and which Huxley has called 
*'The physical basis of life," is built upon the ash 
elements, insignificant though they seem in relative 
prominence. 

Growth controlled by the ash elements — Notwith- 
standing the fact that the ash elements constitute 
an extremely small portion of the total volume of the 
plant, yet if any one of them should be completely 
absent from the soil, no growth would take place, 
and the one which is present in smallest available 
quantity, relative to the plant's demand for it, will 
be the controlling factor in regulating growth. 



CHAPTER III 

The Feeding of the Plant 

Condition of plant food in the soil — As has been 
shown above, the mineral elements which are 
found in the ash of the plant constitute a very small 
proportion of the total weight of the living plant, 
yet they are as indispensable to its life and growth 
as is the skeleton to the life and growth of the ani- 
mal. Of these elements, as well as of the water 
which is required to dissolve them and carry them 
into the tissues of the plant, the soil is the store- 
house, and as both must be stored together it is 
evident that the condition of the mineral elements 
must be such as to limit their solubility to the an- 
nual needs of the vegetation occupying the land, 
otherwise they would have been leached out and 
carried to the sea ages ago. This point may be illus- 
trated by the following examples : 

Soil potassium — Orthoclase feldspar is one of the 
constituents of granite, and is one of the chief 
sources of clay ; this feldspar contains nearly 14 per 
cent of potassium, or three times as much as wood 
ashes ; but this potassium is held in such firm com- 
bination that feldspar has never yet been made an eco- 
nomic source of the potash used in human indus- 
try ;* but, instead, the world depends for the larger 

* The Institution of Industrial Research of Washington, D. C, claims to 
have discovered a process by which the potash of feldspar may be made 
available on a commercial basis. July, 1912. 

35 



36 FARM MANURES 

part of its supply of this substance, used in such a 
multiplicity of ways, upon the Stassfurt mines of 
Germany. An acre of land, taken to the depth of 
7 inches, may contain potassium equivalent to 20 
tons of potash, worth $2,000, as potash is valued 
in the fertilizer market, and yet the addition to such 
a soil of a few pounds of a potassium salt may ma- 
terially increase the yield of crops grown upon it. 

Soil phosphorus — Phosphorus is almost univer- 
sally distributed through the soil, usually in com- 
bination with lime or iron, and an acre-foot of soil 
only moderately stocked with phosphorus may con- 
tain the equivalent of 5,000 pounds of phosphoric 
acid — an acre so moderately stocked that the effect 
of the addition of a few pounds of a soluble phos- 
phate will be manifested by the superior growth of 
the wheat crop as soon as the young plant has ex- 
hausted the phosphorus stored in the seed grain. 
Immense deposits of phosphate of lime are found 
in various parts of the world, which are the chief 
source of supply of this element for fertilizing pur- 
poses. Some of these deposits, notably those of 
Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida, have been 
subjected to the large annual rainfall of a humid 
climate for countless ages, and thus so exhausted of 
their soluble material that, even when they are 
ground into an almost impalpable powder, this pow- 
der must first be dissolved in acid, or partially de- 
composed by incorporation with fermenting or- 
ganic matter, such as manure, before the plant can 
make use of it. 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT yj 

Soil nitrogen — An acre-foot of air-dry swamp 
muck or peat may contain 40,000 pounds, or 20 
tons, of nitrogen. The farmer pays about 20 cents 
a pound for nitrogen when he buys it at retail in 
nitrate of soda, and frequently considerably more 
than that when he buys it in mixed fertilizers, so 
that if the nitrogen in the peat bog were as avail- 
able as that in nitrate of soda, an acre of such a 
bog, in which the muck or peat is frequently 3 feet 
in depth and sometimes much more than that, 
would have a potential value of $6,000 for each foot 
in depth. As a matter of fact, peat is being used as 
a source of nitrogen in mixed fertilizers ; but unless 
the peat is first subjected to chemical treatment cal- 
culated to make its nitrogen available the farmer 
who purchases it will be disappointed in the effect 
produced; for the nitrogen of the- peat is necessarily 
in an insoluble form, otherwise the drainage would 
long ago have carried it away. It is true that peat 
nitrogen may become slowly available when sub- 
jected to the bacterial and other agencies of decom- 
position which are found in arable soil, but the 
slowness with which this operation takes place is 
evidenced by the fact that peat bogs which have 
been drained and put under cultivation eventually 
require the addition of nitrogenous fertilizers, or of 
some material calculated to hasten their decay. The 
inertness of soil nitrogen may be illustrated by the 
fact that land at the Ohio experiment station, on 
which the yield of wheat has been reduced to ii 
bushels an acre by three-quarters of a century of 



38 FARM MANURES 

exhaustive cropping, has given a 17-year average 
yield of 20 bushels when treated with fertilizers car- 
rying phosphorus and potassium, and has given a 
further increase to 2j bushels when nitrogen was 
added to the phosphorus and potassium. Yet this 
soil still contains about 3,000 pounds of nitrogen 
per acre in the upper 12 inches, or enough for 100 
forty-bushel crops of wheat. 

Total store of plant food not an index to produc- 
tiveness — From these examples it will be seen that 
the total invoice of plant food in a given soil is not a 
sufficient basis on which to predicate its produc- 
tiveness, and for more than half a century chemists 
have been endeavoring to discover a method by 
which the availability of the plant food in the soil 
may be measured. To this end various solvents 
have been employed in the chemical laboratory, and 
pot-cultural methods have been tested under glass 
or in the open ; but the outcome has been that, while 
much useful information has been obtained in both 
lines of investigation, we have yet to go to the field 
itself and put our problem to the test of field condi- 
tions before a satisfactory solution is obtained. 

Plant food availability not merely a chemical 
problem — One reason for the failure of the chem- 
ists is that, until quite recently at least, they have 
assumed that the extraction from the rocks of the 
mineral elements upon which our crops feed is 
merely a question of chemical solution ; but the 
bacteriologist is showing us that chemical solution 
is only a secondary factor in the preparation of the 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



39 



food of the higher plants; and that between these 
plants and the rocks there exists an organic world, 
infinitely minute in its individuals, infinitely vast 
in their aggregation, to whose action is primarily 
due the conversion of the rocks into soluble form. 
Different plants have different powers of assim- 
ilation — Another factor which enters into this ques- 
tion is the different capacity for obtaining and as- 
similating their food possessed by different crops. 
Take, for example, the experiments at the Penn- 
sylvania State College, in which corn, oats, wheat 
and clover have been grown in rotation since 1882. 
During the first 25 years of this test the annual 
yields of crops on the unfertilized land, as reported 
in Bulletin 90 of the state college experiment station, 
were as given in the table below, which also shows 
the. composition of these crops, as computed from 
average analyses. 

Table I. Consumption of Plant Food by Penn- 
sylvania Crops. 

Plant food removed from crops grown on unfertilized land at Penn- 
sylvania State College Experiment Station— 25-year average 





Pounds an acre 


Crop and yield an acre 


Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 


Calcium 


r-^^,, [42.1 bushels grain 1 
^°^^ [ 1,955 lbs. stover J 

n^tc f 32.3 bushels grain 1 
uats ^ j^4Q3 j^g_ g^^^^ J 

WViPat f 13-6 t>us. grain 1 
wneat ^ 1^403 ibs. straw J 

Clover, 2,783 lbs. hay 


53.9 
26.9 
21.8 
54.8 


10.8 
5.4 
3.2 
6.7 


32.6 
24.7 
12.5 
43.1 


8.2 

5.8 

2.7 

39.8 



THE FEEDING OF TPIE PLANT 



41 



The table shows that under the conditions of this 
part of the experiment the corn crops have removed 
from the land more nitrogen and phosphorus than 
the succeeding oats and wheat crops combined, and 
nearly as much potassium and calcium;* while the 

Table II. Percentage Composition of Ohio 
Grown Crops. 



Crop 



Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


1.76 


0.24 


2.01 


0.41 


1.97 


0.35 


0.81 


0.07 


0.50 


0.03 


0.58 


0.09 


0.53 


0.09 


2.17 


0.18 


0.84 


0.13 



Potassium 



Corn grain . 
Oats " . 
Wheat " . 
Corn stover 
Corn cobs. . 
Oat straw.. . 
Wheat straw 
Clover hay . 
Timothy hay 



0.34 
0.58 
0.35 
0.78 
0.64 
1.09 
0.83 
1.12 
1.34 



clover crop, coming at the end of the rotation, has 
stored about the same quantity of nitrogen as the 
corn crop, about two-thirds as much phosphorus 
and nearly five times as much calcium, or nearly 
2^ times as much lime as all three of the preced- 
ing crops. 

It is true that the corn crop has had the advantage 
of following immediately after the clover, and thus 
has found a larger amount of ready-prepared plant 
food than would fall to the succeeding crops. It 

* The composition of the plant is materially influenced by the relative 
amount of the different elements of plant food available in the soil (see Bul- 
letin 221 of the Ohio Experiment Station), hence crops grown on different soils 
and under different conditions of climate and fertilization will show differences 
in composition. The table below is compiled from average analyses made at 
the Ohio Experiment Station, and the factors given are employed in the cal- 
culations which follow . 



42 



FARM MANURES 



will be interesting, therefore, to study the results 
obtained on one of the plots at the Ohio experiment 
station, on which corn, oats, wheat, clover and tim- 
othy have been grown in a five-year rotation since 
1894, the only fertilization being a dressing of 50 
pounds dried blood, 120 pounds nitrate of soda, 160 
pounds acid phosphate and 100 pounds muriate of 
potash, all applied to the wheat crop. 

Table III. Consumption of Plant Food by Ohio 
Crops. 

Plant food removed by crops on partly fertilized land at 
Ohio Experiment Station — 17-year average. 







Pounds 


an acre 




Crop and yield an acre 












Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 


Calcium 


rnr~n ^^-^ bus. grain 1 
^^'"^ i 1,811 lbs. stover J 


43.6 


9.0 


27.4 


7.4 


Q„^„ f 33.2 bus. grain 
"^^^ [ 1,386 lbs. straw 


27.3 


5.5 


24.6 


5.9 


WhPat ^ 24.4 bus. grain ] 
Wheat ^ 2,536 lbs. straw ] 


40.5 


6.0 


23.7 


5.4 


Clover, 2,638 lbs. hay . . . . 


52.0 


6.4 


40.9 


37.7 


Timothy, 2,990 lbs. hay . . . 


28.1 


4.3 


35.3 


9.6 



The land on which the Ohio experiment station 
is located lies over sandstones and is deficient in 
lime, while that at the Pennsylvania station is under- 
laid with limestones. This deficiency of lime has mate- 
rially reduced the clover yield in the Ohio test, and 
the timothy crop has received most of the benefit 
from the clover, and yet the corn has been able to 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 43 

secure more of each of the fertilizing elements than 
the wheat, notwithstanding the liberal treatment 
that crop has received. 

One explanation of the superior foraging ability 
of the corn crop is the fact that it is grown through 
the summer months, when the processes are most 
active by which the plant food of the soil, and espe- 
cially its nitrogen, is converted into available form. 
Moreover, the tillage the corn receives is just such 
an operation as would be resorted to were we to 
intentionally set about the forwarding of the proc- 
ess of nitrification; for the tillage distributes the 
nitric ferment and admits air to the soil, which 
is essential to its action. 

Composition of the crop not a sufficient guide to 
its fertilizing — A corollary of the selective power of 
different crops, shown by the above comparisons, is 
that the analysis of the plant is not always a suffi- 
cient guide to its fertilizing. If we were to take the 
analysis of the crop as a guide, we would assume 
that clover would respond decidedly to nitrogenous 
fertilizers ; but scientific investigation and practi- 
cal farm experience concur in the conclusion that if 
clover is abundantly furnished with the mineral 
elements of fertility, including lime, it will be able 
to secure a sufficient supply of nitrogen. With the 
cereal crops, however, the case may be different, 
and we now have available for the study of this 
question several long-continued experiments in 
which the principal American farm crops have been 
grown continuously and in rotation under such con- 



44 FARM MANURES 

ditions as to afford data bearing upon this question. 

In 1882 the Pennsylvania State College instituted 
an experiment in which corn, oats, wheat and clover 
are grown in rotation, each crop being grown every 
season, the corn and wheat receiving various com- 
binations of fertilizing materials and manures, the 
oats and clover being left unfertilized. This experi- 
ment has been continued without interruption, and 
the average results for 30 years are now avail- 
able.* 

The land on which this experiment is located lies 
a few feet above stratified limestones, from which 
it has been derived and which furnish natural drainage. 

Since 1888 experiments have been conducted at 
the Dominion experimental farm, at Ottawa, Can- 
ada, in which wheat, barley, oats, corn, mangels and 
turnips have been grown continuously on the same 
land, the soil being described as "a, piece of sandy 
loam, more or less mixed with clay, which was orig- 
inally covered with heavy timber, chiefly white 
pine," this having been succeeded by a second 
growth, chiefly poplar, birch and maple, which was 
cleared off in i887.f 

Since 1893 several experiments have been insti- 
tuted by the Ohio experiment station, described as 
follows : 

I. A five-year rotation of corn, oats, wheat, clover 
and timothy, begun at the central station at Woos- 
ter, in 1893. 

* Pennsylvania State College Experiment Station, Bulletin 70, and 
supplement. 

t Experimental Farms Reports, 1898, p. 34. 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 45 

2. An experiment in the continuous culture of corn, 
oats, and wheat, begun at the central station in 1894. 

3. A three-year rotation of potatoes, wheat and 
clover, begun at the central station in 1894. 

4. A five-year rotation of corn, oats, wheat, clover 
and timothy, begun at the Strongsville test farm, 
Cuyahoga county, in 1895. 

5. A three-year rotation of tobacco, wheat and 
clover, begun at the Germantown test farm, Mont- 
gomery county, in 1903. 

6. A three-year rotation of corn, wheat and clover, 
begun at Germantown in 1904. 

7. A three-year rotation of corn, wheat and clover, 
begun at the Carpenter test farm, Meigs county, in 1904. 

In all these experiments each crop is grown every 
season. In the Ohio experiments the land is divided 
into plots of one-tenth acre and one-twentieth acre 
each, and every third plot, beginning with No. i, 
is left continuously without fertilizer or manure. 

The plots are 16 feet wide and are separated by 
paths 2 feet wide. A tile drain is laid under alter- 
nate paths, making the drains 36 feet apart. The 
drains are 30 inches deep. 

The soil at the central station is a light, yellow, 
silty clay, lying over the upper, sandy shales of the 
Waverly series. 

That at the Strongsville test farm contains a 
larger proportion of clay than that at the central 
station, is lighter colored, more difficult to work and 
much less productive. It lies over an argillaceous 
shale of the Waverly series. Both soils have been 



46 FARM MANURES 

modified by glacial action, but both have been 
largely derived from the underlying rock, and both 
are quite deficient in lime. 

That at Germantown is a yellow clay, formed 
from the decomposition of glacial gravel, chiefly de- 
rived from the limestones which underlie the 
western half of the state. 

That at Carpenter is a yellow clay of residual origin, 
derived from sandstones and shales of the coal 
measures. 

The five-year rotation and the experiment in con- 
tinuous culture at Wooster are located on land 
which had been subjected to exhaustive cropping 
for more than half a century before the experiments 
were begun. 

Feeding the corn crop — Let us now study the 
feeding habits of a few of the principal crops, as 
illustrated by these experiments : 

Corn stands next to clover in the amount of nitro- 
gen removed from the soil by equivalent crops, and 
because of this habit of the corn plant it is usually 
grown on soils rich in nitrogen, such as black lands 
or those which have had their stock of nitro- 
gen reinforced by manuring or by the growth of 
clover. In all the experiments under review corn, 
when grown in rotation, follows immediately after 
clover or timothy, and thus is enabled to profit by the 
nitrogen and other elements accumulated in the surface 
soil by the clover. The results of these tests are given 
in Table IV, from which it will be seen that on the 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



47 



Table IV. Effect of Fertilizing Elements on 
Corn Grown in Rotation. 





Increase or decrease (— ) in 


bushels, an acre 


Treatment 






Strongs- 


German- 


Carpen- 




Penna. 


Wooster 


ville 


town 


ter 




30-yr. av. 


18-yr. av. 


15-yr. av. 


7-yr. av. 


7-yr. av. 


Nitrogen alone 


-0.7 
5.1 


4.79 
7.48 


0.89 
8.87 


V'.io 




Phosphorus alone 


4.71 


Potassium alone 


2.3 


4.61 


0.74 






Nitrogen and phosphorus 


8.8 


14.50 


10.19 


8.16 


5.18 


Nitrogen and potassium.. 


0.3 


6.76 


2.12 


5.14 


2.23 


Phosphorus & potassium. 


13.4 


14.22 


9.65 


12.51 


7.36 


Phosphorus, potassium 












and low nitrogen 


10.5 


18.93 


11.66 






Phosphorus, potassium 












and medium nitrogen.. 


14.4 


18.45 


11.65 


13.75 


10.53 


Phosphorus, potassium 












and high nitrogen 


15.6 


18.78 


11.29 


13.13 


10.74 


Average fertilized yield, . 


38.8 


29.74 


26.20 


44.84 


36.27 



comparatively productive soils of the Pennsylvania 
and Germantown experiments the addition of nitro- 
gen has produced a very small gain over the in- 
crease produced by phosphorus and potassium 
alone. On the thinner soils of the Wooster and 
Strongsville tests the first addition of nitrogen pro- 
duces a larger increase, but no further gain follows 
the increase of the dose of nitrogen, the dressing 
of phosphorus and potassium remaining the same. 

Further light on this point is given by the experi- 
ments in continuous culture at the Wooster station, 
in which corn has been grown continuously on the same 
land since 1894. The results of this test for the 17 
years, 1894- 19 10, are shown in Table V. 

In this experiment the fertilizers are applied to 



4^ 



FARM MANURES 



Table V. Corn in 17 Years^ Continuous Culture 
AT Ohio Experiment Station, Wooster. 



Plot 
No. 


Treatment : pounds an acre 


Increase 


an acre 


Grain 
Bushels 


Stover 
Pounds 


2 


Nitrate soda, 160 ; acid phosphate 160 ; mu- 
riate potash 100 


21.85 
32.05 
15.60 
30.63 
16.87 


948 


8 


Nitrate soda, '320 ; acid phosphate 160 ; mu- 


1,244 


3 


Nitrate soda, 160 ; acid phosphate, 60; mu- 
riate potash 30 . . . 


631 


9 


Nitrate soda, 320 ; acid phosphate, 120 ; mu- 


1,164 




Average unfertilized yield 


1,237 



plots 2 and 8 in arbitrary quantities, while on plots 
3 and 9 the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are 
given in approximately the same ratio in which they 
are found in the plant. Taking the average analysis 
of the corn crop, as made at the Ohio station, the 
outcome of this test may be thus summarized: 

Table VI. Corn in Continuous Culture; Bal- 
ance Sheet of Fertilizing Elements in Pounds 
AND Per Cents. 





Given in fertilizers 


Recovered in increase 


Percentage recovery- 


Plot 




















No. 














Nitro- 


Phos- 


Potas- 




Nitro- 


Phos- 


Pot as- 


Nitro- 


Phos- 


Potas- 


gen 


phorus 


sium 




gen 


phorus 


slum 


gen 


phorus 


snmi 


% 


% 


% 


2 


25 


10. 


41. 


30.7 


3.6 


13.5 


123 


36 


33 


8 


50 


10. 


41. 


45.9 


5.2 


18.7 


92 


52 


45 


3 


25 


3.7 


12.5 


21.6 


2.6 


9.3 


86 


70 


74 


9 


50 


7.4 


25. 


41.7 


5.0 


17.7 


83 


68 


71 



THt: FEEDING OF THE PLANT 49 

The table shows that where phosphorus and 
potassium have been furnished in abundance the 
crop has been able to secure more nitrogen than 
that given in the fertilizer, even under the conditions of 
this test in which no nitrogen-gathering crop has 
been grown. The amount of nitrogen thus secured, 
however, may be in part accounted for by the nitric 
acid carried to the earth in the annual rainfall. 
When the fertilizing elements have been supplied 
more nearly in the proportions in which they are 
found in the plant there has been a more complete 
utilization, the average recovery of the three ele- 
ments being 'jy per cent on plot 3, 74 per cent on 
plot 9, 64 per cent on plot 2, and 6}^ per cent on plot 
8. In considering this point, however, it must be 
remembered that the cost of a pound of fertilizer 
nitrogen is much greater than that of a pound of 
phosphorus or potassium, and hence the highest per 
cent of utilization may not always indicate the high- 
est net gain. 

We cannot expect to recover the entire amount 
of a fertilizer in the increase of crop harvested, for 
the reason that a portion will always be left in the 
roots and stubble, which, of course, are increased 
proportionally to the parts of the plant which are 
harvested. Making allowance for this factor, it 
would seem that in this experiment, conducted on 
a soil depleted of its virgin fertility by many years 
of cropping, the most effective fertilizer for corn 
has been one in which nitrogen, phosphorus and 
potassium in available form have been carried to 



50 



FARM MANURES 



the crop in approximately the same ratio to each 
other in which they are found in the plant, and 
that the response of the crop has been in direct pro- 
portion to the quantity of the fertilizing elements 
given. 

In the Canadian experiments corn has been grown 
for silage, and the fertilizers have not been applied 
as regularly as in the other tests under considera- 
tion, the fertilizing having been discontinued from 
1899 to 1905, when it was begun again. The aver- 
age yield for 18 years under the treatments most 
nearly comparable with those of the Pennsylvania 
and Ohio stations are as below: 



Table VIL Yield and Increase in Tons of Silage 
Corn at the Dominion Experimental Farms — 
1 8- Year Average. 







Yield 


Increase 


Plot 




an acre 


an acre 


3-12 


None 


7.15 




IS 


Nitrogen alone (in nitrate of soda, 

200 pounds) 
Phosphorus alone (in acid phosphate, 


9 74 


2 59 


9 








1500 pounds) 


9.03 


1.88 


18 


Potassium alone (in muriate of potash, 








300 pounds) 


8.58 


1.43 


10 


Nitrogen and phosphorus (in nitrate of soda, 








200 pounds, and acid phosphate 350 pounds) 


10.75 


3.60 




Phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen (in acid 






19 


phosphate, 500 pounds ; muriate of potash, 








200 pounds, and dried blood, 300 pounds) . . 


10.44 


3.29 



In this test the fertilizing materials have been 
used in very much larger quantity than in the tests 
previously described, especially the acid phosphate. 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 5 1 

and the relative action of nitrogen and phosphorus 
in producing increase is the reverse of that observed 
in the Pennsylvania and Ohio tests, while the gen- 
eral effect of treatment, w^hether w^ith fertilizer or 
manure, has been much smaller. 

Taking the Pennsylvania and Ohio experiments, 
as more applicable to the conditions under v^hich 
corn is generally grown, it would seem that the 
greater part of the nitrogen required by this crop 
may be supplied by systematic rotation of crops, 
and that in order to enable the corn crop to profit in 
the fullest measure by the nitrogen supply thus fur- 
nished, it must be provided with available phos- 
phorus and potassium. 

May we omit potassium from the fertilizer for 
corn? — The large quantity of potassium found in 
most soils — the soils of the Ohio station, for exam- 
ple, containing from 12 to 17 tons of potassium per 
acre in the upper 7 inches — justifies the question 
why it should be necessary to add this element in 
fertilizers. Table IV shows that when potassium 
has been used alone or with nitrogen only, it has 
produced only a small increase or none at all, but 
when added to phosphorus potassium has always 
materially increased the yield. This point is brought 
out more clearly in Table VIII, which shows that in 
every experiment, except the one at Strongsville, 
the addition of potassium to phosphorus in the fer- 
tilizer has caused, not only a larger total, but also 
a greater net gain, notwithstanding the fact that the 
cost of the fertilizer has been very greatly increased. 



52 



FARM MANURES 



Table VIII. Effect of Adding Potassium to 
Phosphorus in Fertilizing Corn. 



Station and treatment 


Bushels 
increase 
an acre 


Value 

of 

increase* 


Cost 

of 

fertilizer 


Net 
gain 


Pennsylvania 

Phosphorus alone 


5.10 
13.40 

7.48 
14.22 

8.87 
9.65 

7.20 
12.57 

4.71 
7.36 


$2.55 
6.70 

3.74 
7.11 

4.43 
4.82 

3.60 
6.28 

2.35 
3.68 


$2.40 
4.90 

0.56 
2.56 

0.56 
2.56 

0.84 
1.84 

0.84 
1.84 


$0.15 


Phosphorus and potassium 

Wooster 

Phosphorus alone 


1.80 
3.18 


Phosphorus and potassium 

Strongsville 


4.55 
3.87 


Phosphorus and potassium 

Germantown 

Phosphorus alone . 


2.26 
2.76 


Phosphorus and potassium 

Carpenter 

Phosphorus alone .... 


4.44 
1.51 


Phosphorus and potassium 


1.84 



* Rating corn at 50 cents a bushel and taking no account of increase 
of stover. 

It seems probable, moreover, that potassium has 
been given extravagantly in the older tests, judging 
from the results at Germantown, where only 20 
pounds of muriate of potash is used, as against 80 
pounds at Wooster and 200 pounds at State College. 

The outcome at Strongsville shows that there 
may be some soils which will not respond to potassic 
fertilizing, and emphasizes the necessity for bring- 
ing each separate soil type under experiment before 
adopting a system of fertilizing. 

Does corn need lime? — On plots 22 and 23 in the 
Pennsylvania experiments quicklime has been ap- 
plied to the corn crop, or once in four years, at the 
rate of two tons per acre, the lime being reinforced 
on plot 22 with six tons of stable manure, applied 
to both corn and wheat, or 12 tons every four years. 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



53 



On plot 34 ground limestone has been used at the 
same rate of two tons per acre, and applied to 
the corn crop. The outcome of this test has been 
as shown in Table IX. 



Table IX. Effect of Lime and Limestone on 
Corn at Pennsylvania State College. 



ushels of corn an acre 



Treatment 



None 

Yard manure, 6 tons . . . 
Yard manure, 6 tons ] 

Lime, 1 ton J 

Lime alone 

Ground limestone alone 




During the first 25 years quicklime used alone 
has diminished the yield by nearly seven bushels 
per acre, although it has slightly increased the yield, 
when used as a reinforcement of manure, while 
ground limestone, used alone, has apparently in- 
creased the yield by one bushel per acre. 

During the last five years the unfertilized yield 
has dropped from a previous average of 42.1 bushels 
to 22.1 bushels, a loss of 20 bushels, and the yield 
from yard manure alone from 57 bushels to 44.4 
bushels, a loss of 13. i bushels, but where the yard 
manure has been reinforced by lime the yield has 
fallen by only 2.3 bushels. Where lime has been 
used alone the yield has dropped from 35.3 bushels 
to 22.9 bushels — a loss of 12.4 bushels, and on the 



54 FARM MANURES 

land receiving ground limestone it has fallen by 13.7 
bushels. Ground limestone has not been used on 
manured land. 

It appears from these results that raw limestone 
has to some extent checked the downward tendency 
of the yield, and that lime has produced a similar 
effect when used as a supplement to manure. As 
has been stated, the soil upon which this test is 
being conducted is a residual soil, formed from the 
decomposition of limestones over which it lies, and it 
would not be expected that such a soil would show 
deficiency of lime at so early a date as one formed 
from noncalcareous rocks, such as that upon which 
the Ohio station's experiments at Wooster are 
located. 

At the Ohio station the use of lime was begun in the 
five-year rotation in 1900, the lime being applied to 
one-half the land and distributed over all the plots, 
fertilized and unfertilized alike, while the land was 
being prepared for corn. There are 30 one- 
tenth acre plots in each of the five tracts of land 
in this experiment, the plots being 16 feet wide by 
272 1-3 feet long and separated by paths 2 feet wide, 
except that between plots 10 and 11, and 20 and 21, 
a roadway 12 feet wide is left to facilitate harvesting 
the small grains. A tile drain is laid at the depth 
of 30 inches under alternate paths, making the 
drains 36 feet apart. The plots are plowed sepa- 
rately about once in 10 years, thus keeping them 
slightly ridged in order to remove surface water 
more uniformly. At other times the plowing is 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 55 

across the plots. The five sections of the experi- 
ment are named A, B, C, D and E. Each section is 
subdivided into 30 plots, and every third plot, be- 
ginning with No. I, is left continuously unfertilized. 
The plots run east and v^est. When the liming v^as 
begun the lime was applied to the west half of Sec- 
tion E, and it was continued on the west sides of 
the remaining sections until the five sections had all 
been limed on this side. In order to make sure 
that the effects observed were due to the lime and 
not to soil variation, the liming was then transferred 
to the east sides of the sections, and was so con- 
tinued for three years. By this time the results had 
become so unmistakable that the liming of the east 
ends was discontinued, in order to leave some of the 
land unlimed from the beginning of the test. In 
Table X is given the outcome of this work, so far as 
the corn crop is concerned, for six crops which have 

Table X. Effect of Lime on Corn. Six Years' 
Average Results at Ohio Experiment Station. 



Treatment* 


Bushels 
an acre 


Bushels 
increase 
for lime 




25.57 
36.40 
35.52 
47.09 
40.26 
52.15 
46.20 
57.75 




No fertilizer, lime 


10.83 


Phosphorus no lime 






11.57 


Phosphorus and potassium, no lime 

Phosphorus potassium and. lime . 


11.89 


Phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, no lime 
Phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen and lime. . . 


1V.55 



* Phosphorus given in acid phosphate, 80 pounds an acre. Potassium 
in muriate of potash, 80 pounds an acre, and nitrogen in nitrate of soda, 100 
pounds an acre. 




66 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



57 



been grown on continuously unlimed land, as com- 
pared with those grown immediately after liming 
during the same seasons . 

The experiments above described clearly show 
that the corn plant requires a supply of available 
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium, all 
four, for its complete development, and that a par- 
ticular soil may be deficient in part or all of these 
elements, owing to its geological origin and previous 
treatment. 



Table XL Effect of Fertilizing Elements on 
Oats Grown in Rotation. 



Treatment 



Nitrogen alone 

Phosphorus alone 

Potassium alone 

Nitrogen and phosphorus 

Nitrogen and potassium 

Phosphorus and potassium 

Phosphorus, potassium and low nitrogen 
" " " medium " 

" " " high 

Average unfertilized yield 



Increase or decrease (*) in bushels 
an acre 



Penna 
30-yr. av. 



*L0 
4.7 
0.2 
8.1 
2.6 
8.2 
8.2 
11.5 
10.3 



31.5 



Wooster 
18-yr. av. 



3.96 

8.54 

3.42 

15.14 

5.79 

12.02 

18.51 

18.40 

17.80 



30.83 



Strongsville 
15-yr. av. 



0.12 

9.36 

0.52 

12.36 

2.38 

9.50 

13.66 

12.67 

12.47 



34.51 



Feeding the oats crop — Oats has been grown in 
rotation in the above-described experiments at the 
Pennsylvania experiment station and in the Wooster 
and Strongsville experiments of the Ohio station. 
In the Pennsylvania test the oats crop is not directly 
fertilized, the fertilizers being divided between the 



58 



FARM MANURES 



corn and wheat crops ; but in the Ohio tests the oats 
crop receives the same quantities of fertilizing ma- 
terials as the corn crop. The general outcome of 
these tests is shown in Table XL 

Comparing Table XI with Table IV, page 47, it 
will be seen that there has been a close uniformity 
in the effect of the different elements on corn and 
oats. ^ 

Feeding the wheat crop — Wheat is grown in all 
the above-described tests, following oats in the 
cereal rotations in the Pennsylvania, Wooster and 
Strongsville tests ; following corn in one of the tests 
at Germantown and the one at Carpenter ; following 

Table XII. Effect of Fertilizing Elements on 
Wheat Grown in Rotation. 



Treatment 



Increase or decrease (*) in bushels an acre 



PnfO 



Wooster 



^i 



i« 






O >. 



Germantown 




8 > 


4.88 


6.64 


7.10 
1.35 
6.34 


10.93 
5.85 
9.28 


8.88 


11.41 


8.27 


12.32 


9.66 


11.10 



Nitrogen alone 

Phosphorus alone 

Potassium alone 

Nitrogen and phosphorus. . 
Nitrogen and potassium . . 
Phosphorus and potassium 
Phosphorus, potassium and 

low nitrogen 

Phosphorus, potassium and 

medium nitrogen 

Phosphorus, potassium and 

high nitrogen 

Average unfertilized yield.. 



*0.9 

2.3 

*2.0 

2.8 
0.2 

'5.1 

7.7 
10.3 
11.8 
13.6 



1.92 
7.97 
1.24 
13.04 
2.73 
8.89 

12.88 

16.25 

16.95 

10.18 



0.84 
5.96 
1-72 
7.30 
4.98 
8.25 

10.20 
9.19 
9.18 

25.57 



*0.10 

6.97 

*0.59 

10.37 

1.61 

8.32 

9.03 

10.13 

12.42 



7.62 



4.65 

6.51 
2.48 
6.42 



9.60 
9.97 
10.48 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 59 

potatoes in one rotation at Wooster; and following 
tobacco in one at Germantown. The general out- 
come of this work is exhibited in Table XII, from 
which it will be seen that the same general law has 
controlled the effect on wheat of the three fertilizing 
elements, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as 
on corn and oats. With all three crops and in every 
test phosphorus has been the dominant element in 
producing increase, although it has been necessary 
to reinforce the phosphorus with both potassium 
and nitrogen before the full demands of the crop 
have been met. It is true that the rate of increase 
produced by the different applications has varied in 
the different soils ; apparently the Pennsylvania and 
Strongsville soils are less responsive to treatment 
than those at Wooster and Germantown; and in 
the case of the two Wooster soils, the high unfer- 
tilized yield in the potato rotation leaves but a com- 
paratively small margin for increase. In the case 
of the two Germantown tests — which are located on 
a soil as absolutely uniform in present appearance 
and previous treatment as it is possible to be, the 
two tests lying side by side on the same original 
farm — it is to be noted that the wheat is directly 
fertilized in the cereal rotation, but in the tobacco 
rotation all the fertilizers are applied to the tobacco 
crop, the wheat following as a gleaner. The total 
quantity of fertilizer applied in the tobacco rota- 
tion, however, is much larger than in the cereal 
rotation, but as the tobacco pays for it all the in- 
crease of wheat is net gain. 



6o 



FARM MANURES 




Wheat in the fertility tests- at Wooster of the Ohio Experiment Station. Plot 
1 (left), unfertilized and Plot 2 (right), acid phosphate; 18-year average 
yield of Plot I, 10.6 bushels; of Plot 2, 18.7 bushels per acre. 

Do oats and wheat need lime? — Unfortunately, 
the oats and wheat crops were not harvested sepa- 
rately on the limed and unlimed land throughout 
the entire course of the first rotation, after the lim- 

Table XIII. Effect of Lime on Oats and Wheat. 





Yield in bushels an acre 


Treatment 


Oats 


Wheat 




Average 
2 crops 


Gain for 
lim.e 


1906 


Gain for 
lime 


No fertilizer, no lime 


30.47 
40.44 
49.84 
54.34 
52.26 
58.51 

59.92 

58.51 


9.97 
4.50 
6.25 

*1.41 


17.02 
23.98 
27.42 
34.00 
29.33 
35.25 

40.08 

45.33 




No fertilizer, lime 

Phosphorus, no lime 


6.96 
6.58 


Phosphorus and potass., no lime . . . 

Phosphorus, potass, and lime 

Phosphorus, potass, and nitrogen, 
no lime 




Phosphorus, potass., nitrogen and 
lime 


5.25 







* Loss. 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



6i 



ing was begun, only two oats crops, those of 1901 
and 1905 being thus separated, and only the wheat 
crop of 1906. The results obtained for the crops 
separately harvested were as shown in Table XIII . 
The failure of the lime to produce a further in- 
crease in the oats crop after the addition of nitrogen 
was probably due to accidental variation, as other plots 
receiving like quantities of phosphorus, potassium and 
nitrogen, with the nitrogen in different carriers and 
quantities show a different result. 

Table XIV. Effect of Lime in Conjunction 
WITH Various Carriers of Nitrogen on Wheat 
AND Oats. 





Nitrogen carrier 


Yield in bushels an acre 


Plot 
No. 


Oats 


Wheat 




Average 


Gain for 


1906 


Gain for 






2 crops 


lime 




lime 


11 


Nitrate of soda, no lime . . 


59.92 




40.08 




11 


and lime 


58.51 


*1.41 


45.33 


5.25 




no lime. . 


56.15 




41.17 




12 


and lime 


58.89 


2.74 


47.17 


6.00 


17 


" no lime. . 


58.90 




37.92 




17 


and lime. 


61.32 


2.42 


43.08 


5 16 


21 


Lmseed oilmeal, no lime . . 


57.34 




37.17 




21 


" " and lime 


63.59 


6.25 


39 67 


2.50 


23 


Dried blood, no lime 


57.81 




33.50 


23 


and lime .... 


60.70 


2.89 


38.50 


5 00 


24 


Sulphate of ammonia, no 












lime 


55.70 




30.42 




24 


Sulphate of ammonia and 










6.09 


40.67 
39.00 


10.25 


18 


Barnyard manure, no lime 


44.45 


18 


and lime 


49.21 


4.76 


46.17 


7.17 



* Loss. 



62 



FARM MANURES 



On plot II each cereal crop receives 25 pounds of 
nitrogen; on plot 12, 38 pounds; and on plots 17, 21, 
23 and 24, 12^ pounds. The larger applications of 
nitrogen have caused more lodging in the oats, and 
thus have sometimes diminished the yield instead of 
increasing it. The wheat, however, shows regu- 
larly a larger yield for the larger dose of nitrogen, 
although the rate of increase is smaller for the sec- 
ond increment of nitrogen than for the first. 




Wheat in the fertility tests at Wooster of the Ohio Experiment Station. Plot 
2 (left), acid phosphate; Plot 3 (right), muriate of potash; 18-year 
average yield of Plot 2, 18.7 bushels; of Plot 3, 12.1 bushels per acre. 



Taking all these results, it seems reasonable to 
assume that on this soil, originally deficient in lime, 
and having had that deficiency accentuated by 
nearly a century of cropping, the addition of lime 
has increased the yield of corn by about lO bushels 
per acre, and that of oats and wheat by five bushels 
or more for each crop, under the conditions of ordi- 
nary fertilizing or manuring. (In this experiment 
the manure is applied only to the corn and wheat, 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



63 



the oats receiving no direct manuring, but the fer- 
tilizers are applied to all three crops.) 

Liming the cereals on limestone land — ^At Penn- 
sylvania State College the soil under experi- 
ment, as has been previously stated, lies over lime- 
stone from which it has been derived by weather- 
ing. In these experiments plot 22. has received 
quicklime at the rate of two tons per acre, applied 
once in four years to the corn crop ; plot 23 has re- 
ceived the same quantity of quicklime, together with 
12 tons of yard manure, the manure being divided 
between the corn and wheat crop, six tons to each 
crop, and plot 34 has received two tons of ground 
limestone every two years, on the corn and wheat 
crops. The effect on the cereal crops of these treat- 
ments is shown in Table XV. 

Table XV. Effect of Lime on Cereal Crops at 
Pennsylvania Experiment Station. 





30-year average yield an acre 


Treatment 


Bushels 


Pounds 




Com 


Oats 


Wheat 


Hay 


Nothing . 


38.8 
33.5 

-5.3 
4L3 

+2.5 
55.2 
58.7 

+3.5 


3L5 
28.6 

-2.9 
33.4 

+1.9 
39.4 
40.9 

+ 1.5 


12.5 
15.0 

+1.5 
15.9 

+2.4 
23.3 
23.2 

-0.1 


2,608 




2,569 


Increase (+) or decrease ( — ) for 


-39 




2,961 


Increase for powdered limestone . . . 


+353 
3,956 


Farmyard manure and lime 

Increase (+) or decrease ( — ) for 
lime 


4,267 
+311 







64 FARM MANURES 

Two tons of quicklime applied every four years to 
unmanured land, or the equivalent of half a ton an- 
nually, has reduced the yield on this soil of every 
crop grown except wheat; whereas powdered lime- 
stone, carrying an equivalent quantity of calcium, 
has increased the yield of every crop, the average 
increase for each rotation having a total value of 
$5.05, counting corn at half a dollar per bushel, oats 




Wheat in the fertility tests at Wooster of the Ohio Experiment Station: Plot 
7 (left), unfertilized; Plot 8 (right), acid phosphate and muriate of 
potash; 18-year average yield of Plot 7, 10.9 bushels; of Plot 8, 19.9 
bushels per acre. 

at one-third of a dollar, wheat at 90 cents and hay 
at $8 a ton. 

It will be observed that although the quicklime 
when used alone has diminished the yield, it has 
produced a small increase in every crop but wheat 
when used in conjunction with manure, over the 
yield from manure alone. 

In the Ohio experiments lime was used at the first 
application at the rate of one ton of quicklime or 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 65 

two tons of powdered limestone once in five years, 
or less than half the quantity applied in the Penn- 
sylvania test,' while the second application was re- 
duced to half these quantities, and this smaller rate 
of application — less than one-fourth that used in the 
Pennsylvania test — appears to be sufficient to sat- 
isfy the need for lime of a soil originally deficient 
in that substance. There is ground, therefore, for 




Wheat in the fertility tests at Wooster of the Ohio Experiment Station : Plot 
12 (left), acid phosphate, muriate of potash and nitrate of soda; Plot 13 
(right), unfertilized; 18-year average yield of Plot 12, 27.8 bushels; of 
Plot 10.9 bushels per acre. 

the conjecture that the unfavorable efifect of quick- 
lime on the otherwise untreated soil in the Penn- 
sylvania test has been due to an excessive use, a 
conjecture which is supported by the different re- 
sult attained where lime has been used in conjunc- 
tion with manure, as the manure would to some 
extent restore the organic matter oxidized by the 
lime. 

Since 1905 another experiment has been con- 



66 FARM MANURES 

ducted at the Ohio experiment station in which 
different forms of lime and ground limestone have 
been used alone and as supplements to manure in a 
three-year rotation of corn, oats and clover; the 
manure being plowed under for the corn crop at the 
rate of eight tons per acre, and the lime and lime- 
stone applied to the surface. The results of this 
comparison for the seven years, 1905-11, are given 
in Table XVI. 

Table XVI. Comparative Effect of Lime and 
Limestone on Corn. Oats and Clover, Grown in 
Rotation at Ohio Experiment Station. 



Value of increase 
Treatment an acre 

Manure, 8 tons ; caustic lime, 1,000 pounds $1L83 

Manure, 8 tons ; ground limestone, 1,780 pounds 13.60 

Manure, 8 tons ; air-slacked lime, 1,780 pounds 12.03 

Manure, 8 tons ; hydrated lime, 1,320 pounds 13.21 

Caustic lime alone, 1,000 pounds 5.75 

Ground limestone alone, 1,780 pounds 2.55 



The land on which this test is located had been 
under regular rotative cropping before the test was 
begun, manure having been applied every fourth or 
fifth season, and was in such condition that the un- 
manured yields during the seven years of the test 
have averaged 58^^ bushels of corn, 48 bushels of 
oats and 2 1-3 tons of hay, and the increase over 
these yields produced by the treatment has been 
relatively small, as compared with that attained on 
less fertile land. It appears, however, that the 
ground limestone has been the more effective when 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 67 

used as a supplement to manuring, while the caustic 
lime has produced the larger increase when used 
alone. 

The air-slaked lime used in this test had been 
slaked a year in advance of application and exposed 
to the air so that it had in part returned to the car- 
bonate form. 

Feeding the clover crop — Table XVII shows the 
effect on the clover crop of fertilizing elements ap- 




Wheat in the fertility tests at Wooster of the Ohio Experiment Station: Plot 
18 (left), barnyard manure; Plot 19 (right), unfertilized; 18-year average 
yield of Plot 18, 22.2 bushels; of Plot 19, 10.7 bushels per acre. 



plied to the preceding crops in the several experi- 
ments under consideration. From this table it ap- 
pears that on the soil on which the Pennsylvania 
experiments are located nitrogen and potassium, 
when used alone, have diminished the yield of 
clover; when the two have been used in conjunction 
there has been a very slight increase in yield ; phos- 
phorus has increased the yield in every case, but the 



68 



FARM MANURES 



combined effect of either phosphorus and nitrogen 
or phosphorus and potassium has been much greater 
than that of phosphorus alone. In fact, the combi- 
nation of phosphorus and potassium has produced 
a greater increase than any combination of the 
three elements, thus indicating that for this soil it 
has not been necessary to add nitrogen to the fer- 
tilizer for clover. 

In the cereal rotation at Wooster, while the supe- 
riority of phosphorus is marked, yet both nitrogen 

Table XVII. Residuary Effect on Clover of 
Fertilizing Elements Applied to Preceding 
Crops of Rotations. 







[ncrease 


or decrease (— ) in pounds an acre 








Wooster 




Germantown 




Treatment 


Penna. 
30-yr. 
aver. 






Strongs- 
















Car- 




Cereal 

r 

17-yr. 


Potato 

R 
13-yr. 


ville 
15-yr. 
aver. 


Cereal 

R. 
7-yr. 


Tobac- 
co R 

7-yr. 


penter 

Cereal 

R 






aver. 


aver. 




aver. 


aver. 




Nitrogen alone .... 


-398 


332 


349 


210 








Phosphorus alone.. 


526 


497 


382 


887 


548 


747 


298 


Potassium alone . . 


-280 


252 


185 


87 






.... 


Nitrogen and 
















phosphorus 


965 


1,080 


570 


764 


645 


1,150 


426 


Nitrogen and 
















potassium 


40 


400 


565 


247 


110 


530 


35 


Phosphorus and 
















potassium 


1,566 


914 


456 


663 


640 


1,211 


515 


Phosphorus, potass. 
















and low nitrogen 


1,388 


1,220 


934 


914 









Phosphorus, potass. 
















and medium ni- 
















trogen 


1,512 


1,325 


574 


897 


637 


1,250 


760 


Phosphorus, potass. 
















and high nitrogen 


1,547 


1,390 


714 


803 


572 


1,441 


732 


Average unfertilized 
















yield 


2,608 


1,808 


3,693 


1,847 


2,367 


2,066 


1,819 







THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 69 

and potassium have produced a decided increase, 
whether used separately or in combination with 
each other only, and when combined with phos- 
phorus the effect of nitrogen has apparently been 
greater than that of potassium, the largest total in- 
crease being found on the plot receiving the com- 
plete fertilizer containing the largest quantity of 
nitrogen. 

In the potato rotation at Wooster the unfertilized 
yield of clover has averaged nearly two tons of hay 
per acre, and the increase over this yield has been 
relatively small and somewhat irregular, but even 
on this fertile soil it is surprising to note that the 
largest increase is found on plots receiving nitrog- 
enous fertilizers. 

In the Strongsville experiments the role of phos- 
phorus appears to be more important than that of 
either of the other elements, nitrogen coming sec- 
ond, while potassium has produced a very small 
effect, whether used separately or in combination. 

In the Germantown and Carpenter tests nitrogen 
and potassium have not been used separately; but 
at Germantown their combination has produced a 
relatively small effect in the absence of phosphorus. 
When added to phosphorus, however, they have 
materially increased the yield in the tobacco rota- 
tion; although the smaller quantities used in the 
cereal rotation have produced but little effect, the 
crops in this rotation receiving but 25 pounds of 
nitrogen and 16 pounds of potassium per acre for 
each three-year rotation. And yet the application 




TO 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 7I 

of only 15 pounds of phosphorus per acre during the 
same period has produced an unmistakable effect. 

A point of -importance in this study of clover is 
that of the vehicle in which the fertilizer nitrogen 
is carried. In the Pennsylvania experiments dried 
blood has been used as the standard carrier of nitro- 
gen, while in the Ohio experiments nitrate of soda 
has been the standard. In both experiments the 
standard carrier has been the only one used where 
nitrogen has been given alone or in combination 
with only one of the other elements, but in both 
tests other carriers have been employed in the com- 
binations containing all three elements. In the 
Pennsylvania test dried blood, nitrate of soda and 
sulphate of ammonia have each been employed, in 
quantities calculated to furnish 24, 48 and "^2 
pounds of nitrogen per acre. In the Ohio tests at 
Wooster and Strongsville nitrate of soda has been 
similarly used, while dried blood, sulphate of am- 
monia and linseed oil meal have been used in the 
smaller quantity. 

In the cereal rotation at Wooster lime has been 
applied to one-half the land, fertilized and unfer- 
tilized alike, since 1900; the lime being used when 
the land was being prepared for corn, and at the 
rate of one ton of quicklime or two tons of pow- 
dered limestone per acre for the first application, 
and in half these quantities subsequently. After 
treating the west half of each of the five tracts of 
land in the experiment the liming was transferred 
to the east half, and so continued for three years. 




72 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



73 



or long enough to make sure that the effects ob- 
served were not due to variations in the soil. Since 
then the lime has been used only on the west half. 
In the following table, therefore, part of the land 
given as unlimed has had one liming, but an interval 
of eight years had elapsed between the application 
of the lime and the harvesting of the clover crop. 
Even after this long interval the clover has still 
shown considerable advantage from the liming. 

Table XVIII. Residual Effect on the Clover 
Crop of Fertilizers Applied to Preceding Crops 
ON Central Farms of Ohio Experiment Station. 
Average for 9 Years, 1903-1911. 





Increase an acre (Pounds) 


Treatment 


Unlimed 


Limed 




372 
471 
147 

1,213 
414 
903 

1,360 
876 
935 

1,047 


442 


Phosphorus 


789 




140 


Nitrogen (in nitrate of soda) and phosphorus . . 
Nitrogen (in nitrate of soda) and potassium . . .. 


1,383 
421 

1,479 


Phosphorus, potass, and nitrogen in nitrate of soda 
Phosphorus, potass, and nitrogen in dried blood 
Phosphorus, potass, and nitrogen in sulphate amm. 
Phosphorus, potass, and nitrogen in linseed oilmeal 


1,959 
1.762 
1.956 
1.699 




1,605 


2,105 







In this experiment the fertilizers have been ap- 
plied to all three of the cereal crops, and the stand- 
ard carrier of nitrogen has been nitrate of soda, 
which has been used at the rate of 160 pounds per 
acre on each crop, when used alone, or with phos- 



74 FARM MANURES 

phorus or potassium only, which quantity, on the 
average analysis of this salt, would contain about 
25 pounds of nitrogen. In the complete fertilizers, 
however, carrying nitrogen, phosphorus and potas- 
sium, all three, the nitrogen has been reduced to 
one-half this quantity for the plots given in the 
above table, while the phosphorus has been in- 
creased from the standard application of 20 pounds 
of phosphorus to 30 pounds. 

The table shows that all the fertilizing combina- 
tions have increased the clover crop, both on the 
limed and unlimed land, and that the increase on 
the limed land is much greater than that on the un- 
limed land whenever the fertilizer has carried phos- 
phorus. At first glance it would seem that the nitro- 
gen had increased the yield ; and that nitrate of soda 
has caused an increase there can be no doubt, but 
it is not so certain that the principal effect of the 
nitrate of soda has been due to the nitrogen carried. 
For further light on this point let us compare the 
yields of clover obtained in the Ohio and Penn- 
sylvania experiments from a fertilizer carrying phos- 
phorus and potassium only — made up in the Penn- 
sylvania experiments from dissolved bone black and 
muriate of potash, calculated to carry 42 pounds of 
phosphorus and 166 pounds of potassium for each 
four-year rotation, the fertilizer being divided be- 
tween the corn and wheat crops in a rotation of 
corn, oats, wheat and clover, and in the Ohio ex- 
periments of acid phosphate and muriate of potash, 
calculated to carry 20 pounds of phosphorus and 108 



THE FEEDING- OF THE PLANT 



IS 



pounds of potassium for every five-year rotation, 
and so divided between the corn, oats and wheat as 
to give the wheat half the total phosphorus and 
about two-fifths of the total potassium — with those 
found after nitrogen has been added to the fertilizer. 
The table shows that when the results on the 
unlimed land in the Ohio test are compared with 



Table XIX. Average Yield in Pounds of Clover 
Hay an Acre from Phosphorus and Potassium^ 
and Increase or Decrease When Nitrogen Is 
Added. Pennsylvania and Ohio Experiment 
Stations. 







Pennsylvania 
30-year 
average 


Ohio, 


Wooster 


9-year average 




Unlimed 


Limed 




Nitro- 
gen 
an 














Treatment 




In- 




In- 




In- 




acre 


Yield 


crease 
(+) or 

de- 
crease 


Yield 


crease 
(+) or 

de- 
crease 

(-) 


Yield 


crease 
(+; or 

de- 
crease 

(-) 


Phosphorus and 
potassium 




4.174 




2.494 




3.672 




Phosphorus, po- f 
tassium and \ 
dried blood . . i 


24 
48 
72 


3.996 
4.120 
4.155 


-178 

- 54 

- 19 


2.338 


-156 


3.719 


-1-47 


Phosphorus, po- [ 
tassium and \ 
nitrate of soda [ 


24 
48 

72 


4.308 
4.302 
4.302 


+134 
-M28 
+128 


2.815 
3.074 
3.075 


+321 
+580 
+581 


3.977 
3.808 
3.900 


+305 
+ 136 
+228 


Phosphorus, po- [ 
tass.and sulphate 
of ammonia 


24 

48 

72 


3.966 
3.574 
3.270 


-208 
-600 
-904 


2.473 


- 21 


4.005 


+333 



76 



FARM MANURES 



those at the Pennsylvania station, they agree in 
showing a decrease in yield when nitrogen has been 
added in dried blood or sulphate of ammonia, but 
an increase when the nitrogen carrier has been 
nitrate of soda ; whereas, when lime has been added 
to the Ohio land, it has not only caused a large in- 
crease in the yield of clover on the land treated only 




Clover in the fertility tests of Pennsylvania State College Experiment Sta- 
tion: Plot 13 (left), 320 pounds gypsum; Plot 14 (middle), nothing; 
Plot 15 (right), 320 pounds dissolved boneblack and 200 pounds muriate 
of potash on preceding wheat crop. 



with phosphorus and potassium, but has reversed 
the results on the plots receiving dried blood or sul- 
phate of ammonia in addition to the phosphorus and 
potassium, thus producing a still greater increase 
on these plots than that found where the nitrogen 
has been omitted. 

That the superiority of nitrate of soda as a fer- 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 



17 



tilizer for clover is not altogether due to greater 
effectiveness as a carrier of nitrogen is indicated by 
Table XX, which gives the average increase in the 
cereal crops of the five-year rotation at Wooster 
and Strongsville from different treatments on land, 
half of which has been limed for each corn crop 
since 1900 at Wooster, and since 1905 at Strongs- 
ville. 



Table XX. Comparative Effect of Carriers of 
Nitrogen on Cereal Crops Grown in Rotation 
at Ohio Experiment Station. 







Station, crop 


duration of test and a^ 


-erage 




Treatment 




increase an acre (bushels) 




Plot 


Wooster 


Strongsville 




Corn 


Oats 


Wheat 


Corn 


Oats 


Wheat 






18 yrs. 


18 yrs. 


18 yrs. 


15 yrs. 


15 yrs. 


14 yrs. 


No. 

2 


Phosphorus alone 


7.20 


8.54 


7.95 


8.87 


9.36 


6.97 


8 


Phosphorus and potas- 


















14.22 


12 02 


8 85 


9.64 


9.50 


8.32 


23 


Phosphorus, potassium 










and 38 pounds nitrogen 
















in dried blood 


17.87 


17.13 


12.25 


10.69 


13.30 


9.16 


24 


Phosphorus, potassium 
and 38 pounds nitrogen 
















m sulphate ammonia . . 


17.34 


17.96 


12.46 


9.82 


13.95 


9.79 


21 


Phosphorus, potassium 
and 38 pounds nitrogen 
















in Unseed oil meal. . . . 


17.79 


16.06 


13.55 


10.15 


12.87 


9.87 


r; 


Phosphorus, potassium 
and 38 pounds itrogen 
















in nitrate of soda 


18.93 


18.51 


12.88 


11.66 


13.66 


9.03 


11 


Phosphorus, potassium 
and 76 pounds nitrogen 
















in nitrate of soda 


18.45 


18.40 


16.25 


11.66 


12.67 


10.13 


12 


Phosphorus, potassium 
and 114 pounds nitro- 
















gen m nitrate of soda . . 


18.78 


17.80 


16.95 


11.29 


12.50 


12.42 



THE FEEDING OF THE PLANT 79 

The table shows that when the fertilizer has con- 
tained nitrogen, in whatever carrier, there has been 
a much greater increase in the cereal crops than 
when the nitrogen has been omitted, and that the 
different carriers of nitrogen have differed much 
less widely in their effect on the cereals than on the 
clover crop. 

It is true that plots 17, 21, 23 and 24 have received 
more phosphorus than plots 2 and 8, but in the fer- 
tilizing of plots 8, II and 12 the only difference is in 
the nitrate of soda, the phosphorus and potassium 
being the same for all. While the corn and oats 
have not responded to the increase of nitrogen on 
plots II and 12, the wheat shows an increase in 
yield for each addition of nitrogen. 

Considering these results as a whole, we must 
conclude that, notwithstanding its high content of 
nitrogen, clover is comparatively indifferent to nitrog- 
enous fertilizers, and that the superior growth of 
clover following applications of nitrate of soda on 
acid soils is probably chiefly due to the neutralizing 
effect of the soda ; for the plant probably does not 
absorb nitrate of soda as such in any considerable 
quantity, but by the selective power of its roots 
separates the salt into its constituents, absorbing 
the nitric acid and leaving the soda, or most of it, 
in the soil, where it will immediately recombine 
with other acids, thus neutralizing their effect. 
Such an hypothesis would account for the fact that 
where nitrate of soda has been given in larger quan- 
tity than the cereal crops have been able to utilize 



So FARM MANURES 

there has been no further increase in the yield of 
clover. 

The larger growth of the cereal crops resulting 
from the application of nitrogenous fertilizers has 
left correspondingly larger residues of roots and 
stubble, which would account for a considerable in- 
crease in the clover crops following; but, as has 
been shown above, the difference between the resid- 
ual effect of fertilizers in which the nitrogen car- 
rier has been nitrate of soda and those in which it 
has been sulphate of ammonia or organic materials 
has been greater in the clover crop, on acid soils, 
than on the crops directly fertilized. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Composition of Manure 

Terminology — The word manure is derived from 
the French "manceuvrer," to manipulate, to work, 
and in its earlier significance manuring meant both 
tilling or working the land and adding to it mate- 
rials designed to increase its productiveness. Even- 
tually the term became restricted to its narrower 
meaning of adding fertilizing materials, and in 
England manures are substances of any kind used 
for this purpose, whether the excreta of animals, 
chemical fertilizers, or crops grown to be turned 
under without harvesting. In America we some- 
times speak of such crops as "green manures," but 
with this exception we limit the words manure and 
manuring to the excreta of animals and their use 
for soil enrichment; the use of chemical substances 
for this purpose being expressed as "fertilizing." In 
the following pages, therefore, "manure" will mean 
the excreta of animals — dung and urine with the 
straw or other material used as the absorbent; 
"green manure" will mean crops grown to be 
plowed down for soil improvement, and "fertilizer" 
will mean a chemical or manufactured material used 
for the same purpose. 

The food controls the composition of manure — 
The food of the animal is the source of its manure, 

81 



THE COMPOSITION OK MANURE 83 

and the composition of the manure must, then, de- 
pend largely upon that of the food. It is true that 
this composition may be modified by the quantity 
of water drunk, and that in case of under feeding 
the body substance may be drawn upon to a limited 
extent to replace elements not sufficiently abundant 
in the food; but these are factors of minor impor- 
tance. 

The dung — A considerable part of the food, espe- 
cially the coarser portion, resists the digestive ac- 
tion and passes out unchanged, except that it is 
ground to a finer condition by mastication, softened 
by admixture with water and digestive fluids, and 
with small amounts of waste tissue, cast ofif from the 
linings of the digestive tract. This constitutes the 
dung, or solid part of the excrement. The larger 
portions of the nitrogen and potassium of the food 
are dissolved out and carried into the circulation, 
to be excreted through the kidneys ; hence the dung 
is relatively poor in these elements, as compared 
with the total excrement, while the portion that it 
does contain is in a comparatively insoluble form, 
and therefore less available to plants, being chiefly 
that contained in the food residues which have 
resisted the action of the digestive fluids. 

The urine — The substances dissolved out of the food 
by the digestive process are carried into the blood, 
by which they are conveyed to all parts of the body, 
and from which the various tissues and organs ap- 
»propriate what is needed for the maintenance and 
heat of the body, for growth, and for the renewal of 



84 FARM MANURES 

worn-out tissues. Such of the dissolved nitrogen and 
mineral elements of the food as are not thus appropri- 
ated, together with the waste, are excreted through the 
kidneys in the urine, which thus carries off about half 
the nitrogenous excretions and about three-fifths of 
the potassic. That a larger portion of phosphorus is 
not excreted through the kidneys appears to be due 
to the fact that this element chiefly enters the blood 
as phosphate of lime, which is insoluble in alkaline 
fluids, and the urine is usually alkaline. 

Relative production and composition of dung and 
urine — In 189 1 the Cornell University experiment 
station collected separately the dung and urine 
from four cows for 24 hours. "^ The total produc- 
tion of dung was 225 pounds, and of urine 72.25 
pounds. The average live weight of the cows was 
1,178 pounds. Calculated per 1,000 pounds, live 
weight, the production was as follows : 



DAILY WEIGHT OF EXCRETA 

Average daily weight of dung, 54-12 pounds 

'' - urine, 15.33 '' 



Average daily total excrement, 69.45 pounds 

The dung and urine were analyzed and found to 
contain the following percentages of fertilizing ele- 
ments : 



♦ Cornell University Experiment Station, Bulletin 27. 



THE COMPOSITION OF MANURE 85 



PERCENTAGES OF ELEMENTS IN EXCRETA 









In total 




In dung 


In urine 


excrement 


Nitrogen, 


0.26 


1.32 


0.49 


Phosphorus, 


0.123 


.... 


0.097 


Potassium, 


0.166 


0.83 


0.315 



The daily excrement would therefore contain the 
following quantities per 1,000 pounds live-weight: 

POUNDS OF ELEMENTS IN EXCRETA 









In total 




In dung 


In urine 


excrement 


Nitrogen, 


0.14 


0.203 


0.35 


Phosphorus, 


0.066 


.... 


0.066 


Potassium, 


0.09 


0.128 


0.218 



Value,* $0,034 $0,038 $0,072 

In 1893 Prof. Harry Snyder, of the Minnesota 
experiment station,! collected separately the dung 
and urine from cows — weight not given — for five 
days, with results as below : 

AVERAGE WEIGHT OF EXCRETA FROM COW 

Average daily weight of dung, a cow, 40.8 pounds 
" " urine, " 22.6 

" " total excrement, " 63.4 



* Computing nitrogen at 15 cents, phosphorus at 11 cents, and potassium 
at 6 cents a pound. 

t Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Minnesota, Bulletin 26. 



86 FARM MANURES 

The analysis of the dung and the urine showed 
the following percentages : 

PERCENTAGES OF ELEMENTS IN EXCRETA 





In dung 


In urine 


Nitrogen, 


0.26 


I.21 


Phosphorus, 


0.194 


0.026 


Potassium, 


0.266 


0.905 



Calculated per cow per day, these percentages 
would show the following production (pounds) : 

DAILY WEIGHT OF ELEMENTS IN EXCRETA 









In total 




In dung 


In urine 


excrement 


Nitrogen, 


0.106 


0.273 


0.379 


Phosphorus, 


0.079 


0.059 


0.138 


Potassium, 


0.108 


0.205 


0.318 



Value, $0,031 $0,060 $0,091 

Both the quantity and the composition of urine 
are variable, both for the different classes of ani- 
mals and for the same animal under different condi- 
tions, being affected by the character of the food, 
the water drunk, the external temperature, etc. The 
tables of the Mentzel u. von Lengerke Landw. Kal- 
ender give the following as the average percentage 
composition of fresh urine from different classes of 
animals : 



THE COMPOSITION OF MANURE 87 

AVERAGE PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OF URINE 





Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potass 


From horses, 


1-5 


0.004 


1.6 


" cattle. 


I.O 


0.004 


1.6 


" sheep. 


2.0 


0.004 


2.0 


" swine. 


0.5 


0.04 


2.0 



The experiments above described show that more 
than half the fertilizing value of the excrement of 
dairy cows may be found in the urine. 

Variation of composition — Since the manure is 
derived from the food consumed, it is evident that 
its composition may be materially modified, accord- 
ing to the character of the food. The feeding of 
highly nitrogenous foods, such as bran and oil meal, 
for example, will produce a manure rich in nitrogen ; 
and as these substances, bran especially, also contain 
a large amount of phosphorus, that element also will 
be found abundant in the manure. 

If, on the contrary, the ration be largely made 
up of such foodstuffs as corn and timothy hay, it 
will contain very little surplus of nitrogen and phos- 
phorus beyond the needs of the animal, and the 
manure will consequently be relatively low in these 
elements. 

If clover hay should replace timothy, there would 
be an increase of calcium and potassium in the 
manure, as the percentage of these elements is much 
greater in clover than in timothy. 

The age and function of the animal also affect the 



88 FARM MANURES 

composition of the manure. A growing calf, for 
example, gaining say 50 pounds per month in live 
weight, will store away 3^ to 4 pounds of phos- 
phorus annually in its bones and other tissues, or as 
much as would be contained in two tons of mixed 
hay ; and a cow, giving 4,000 pounds of milk a year, 
would put into the milk about 3 1-3 pounds of phos- 
phorus ; while a two-year-old steer, fattened in three 
or four months' feeding, may not appropriate more 
than a fraction of a pound of this element during 
the fattening period, although he may be consum- 
ing a much larger quantity of phosphorus in his 
food than is ordinarily given to the growing calf. 

Manure is never entirely depleted of phosphorus — 
It is, of course, impossible to extract all the phos- 
phorus from the food. A portion passes through in 
the undigested material, while of that digested, a 
considerable portion merely takes the place of an 
equivalent quantity which is being liberated in the 
metabolic processes and excreted ; for growth is not 
simply a process of building up ; the old structure is 
constantly being torn down to make room for the 
new. Hence a very much larger quantity of each 
of the various elements must pass through the body 
than is required for the actual growth of the ani- 
mal. In this respect the growth of the animal 
organism differs radically from that of the plant. 

The possible differences in composition of manure 
may be illustrated by the following analyses, the first 
being of manure from well-fed dairy cows, the sec- 
ond of that from fattening steers : 



THE COMPOSITION OF MANURE 



89 



ELEMENTS IN MANURE OF ANIMALS VARIOUSLY FED 

Pounds a ton of manure 
Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium 
Cow manure,' 8.88 2.42 11.90 

Steer " 978 473 9-34 

Both cows and steers were being fed liberally with 
corn meal and bran, but the cows were consuming a 
larger proportion of roughage than the steers, which 
were being fed all the concentrates they could con- 
sume. 

The following table gives the composition of vari- 
ous manures as found by the authorities quoted : 

Table XXI. Percentage Composition of Manures 



Kind of manure 



HORSE MANURE 
Fresh with straw 



Average . 



70.8 
72.0 
48.7 
60.0 
62.7 
62.8 



Fresh without straw. 
From city stables* . . . 

From open yard2 

Dung only3 



COW manure 

Fresh with straw 

•* " "4 



Average 

Fresh, without straw. . , 



75.8 
69.3 
80.1 
67.3 



0.51 
0.49 
0.49 
0.63 



0.092 
0.163 
0.114 
0.123 



0.73 0.116 
0.57 0.122 



0.47 
0.53 
0.69 
0.45 
0.47 



73.2 0.43 



81.4 
75.2 
71.7 
81.5 
80.1 
78.0 

85.3 

86.8 



0.47 0.141 
0.43 0.128 



0.172 
0.180 
0.295 
0.176 
0.154 
0.140 



Authority 



0.440 
0.747 
0.398 
0.564 
0.647 
0.539 

0.780 
0.420 
0.522 
0.415 
0.183 



Cornell Exp. Sta.Bul. 27 
Ohio 



56 
183 



0.351 Ohio 



0.43 
0.49 
0.47 
0.46 

0.53 
0.50 
0.45 



0.132 
0.122 
0.132 
0.131 



0.398 
0.365 
0.398 
0.324 
0.304 
0.358 



0.070 0.299 Conn. 
0.145 0.365 Cornell 
0.114 0.325 N. J. 



Cornell 
Conn. 



Cornell 
Conn. 



Cornell 



Conn. 
Ohio 



" 27 
Rpt. 1889 

Bui. 27 
Rpt. 1889 
Bui. 183 



" 27 

•♦ 56 

Rpt. 1889 

Bui. 183 



Rpt. 1889 
Bui. 27 
(Note) 



90 



FARM MANURES 



Kind of manure 




g 


ft 


a 
.3 

tn 


Authority 




% 
^ 


2 




1 

PL, 






Fresh, dung only5 


84.6 


).35 


3.135 


0.170 


N. J. Exp. 


Sta. (Note) 


" «' " 


85.0 


[1.36 


0.113 


0.174 


Ohio 


" Bui, 183 


From covered shed 


S2.4 


0.42 


0.088 


0.249 


Conn. " 


" Rpt. 1889 


" open yard6 


67.0 


0.55 


0.224 


0.705 


Cornell '^' 


;; Bui. 27 


Urine only 




0.32 
0.90 




0.830 
0.558 


Ohio 








" " 183 


STEER MANURE 






Fresh with straw 














From cemented floor? 


80.5 


0.79 


0.313 


0.417 


i< a 


II II II 


" earth floor? 


78.8 


0.73 


0.326 


0.390 


<< << 




Untreated 


75.2 
76.0 


0.51 
0.48 


0.162 
0.138 


0.407 
0.393 


.< 




Treated with gypsumS 




" kainitS 


76.2 


0.49 


0.144 


0.585 


11 << 




" floatsS 


76.5 


0.53 


0.430 


0.369 


11 


II II II 


" " acid phosphates 


77.0 


0.49 


0.285 


0.344 






From open 3' ard 














Untreated 


83.1 
83.1 


0.35 
0.39 


0.121 
0.131 


0.164 
0.126 


" 


II 11 II 


Treated with gypsumS 




" kainitS 


81.7 


0.33 


0.121 


0.243 


" " 




" floatsS 


81.1 


0.34 


0.340 


0.162 


<< .1 


II II II 


" " acid phosphates 


82.6 


0.35 


0.235 


0.147 


" " 


II 11 11 


MIXED YARD MANURE 














Open-yard manure^ 


77.1 


0.53 


0.150 


0.589 


Conn. 


" Rpt. 1889 


" (old) 10... 


54.7 


0.46 


0.317 


0.133 




II 11 11 


" " " 


72.3 


0.44 


0.154 


0.469 


Hatch " 


" Bui. 70 


Hog manure 


74.1 


0.84 


0.172 


0.265 


Cornell " 


" 56 






0.54 


0.290 


606 


N. Y. State" 


'I'l ^?}-?, 


•• «' ■ ■ ■ ■ 




0.57 


0.365 


0.307 




Sheep manure 






Fresh, without straw H 


59.5 


0.77 


0.172 


0.490 


Cornell " 


" Bui. 56 


Fresh, with straw 12 














Ration, corn, mixed hay 


58.4 


1.49 


0.228 


1.115 


Ohio ]| 


" " 183 


" oil meal" 


65.7 


1.55 


0.235 


1.022 




II 11 1. 


" " " ■'.... 


66.2 


1.56 


0.218 


1.088 


" " 


II II II 


" stock food, hay 


67.9 


1.35 


0.181 


0.974 


" 


II 


Ration, corn, oilmeal, clover 














hay 


62.0 


1.68 


0.259 


1.037 


" " 


" " " 


Ration, corn, stock food, 














clover hay 


61.8 


1.48 


0.259 


1.014 


" " 


•1 II 1. 


Ration, corn, clover hay 


61.0 


1.60 


0.254 


1.002 


" " 


II 11 II 


" " " " . . . . 


59.1 


1.70 


0.259 


1.171 


" " 


II II II 


Average Ohio tests 


62.8 


1.55 


0.236 


1.052 






HEN MANURE 














Fresh, nitrogenous rationl3 . 


59.7 


0.80 


0.405 


0.266 


N. Y. State' 


I'l Rept- 8 


Fresh, carbonaceous rationlS 


55.3 


0.66 


0.317 


0.207 






Fresh from capons 


65.0 


1.24 


0.40? 


0.299 




II 


average sample 


55.0 


1.15 


0.405 


0.373 


N. J. 


" Bui. 84 


no description 


59.0 


1.20 


0.44C 


0.73? 


Mass. 


" 37 


« i 11 11 


52.6 


0.46 


0.304 


0.93C 




" 63 


A ir dry 


8.3 


2.13 


0.88? 


0.82 = 




" Rpt. 8 


" nitrogenous ration . 


7.4 


1.81 


0.972 


0.921 


N. Y. State' 


11 .1 II 


" " carbonaceous ration 


7.1 


'■" 


0.24 = 


0.838 


" 





THE COMPOSITION OF MANURE 9I 



Notes. 

t. Manure without bedding, from 10 work horses liberally fed on oats 
and hay. 

2. After five 'months' exposure in open yard. During this time the 
total weight of manure was reduced by 57 per cent, that of the nitrogen by 
60 per cent, that of the phosphorus by 47 per cent and that of the potassium 
by 76 per cent. 

3. Fresh dung from a horse fed daily with 14 pounds of timothy hay 
and four quarts of oats with cracked corn. Somewhat dried. 

4. Average of four analyses of manure from 18 cows bedded with cut 
wheat straw and the drops sprinkled with plaster. 

5. Average of 17 analyses made 1898 to 1906, inclusive. 

6. After six months' exposure in an open yard. The total weight of 
manure was reduced from 10,000 pounds to 5,125 pounds, and the nitrogen, 
phosphorus and potassium from 47, 14 and 40 pounds to 28, 11.5 and 36.5 
pounds respectively, or by 40, 18 and 9 per cent. 

7. Manure treated during accumulation with floats, at the rate of one 
pound per steer per day. 

8. The materials were used for treatment at the rate of 40 pounds per 
ton of manure in each case. 

9. Manure taken from a heap containing the accumulations from young, 
growing cattle and a few horses. A liberal quantity of bran, a few oats and 
a little corn meal with good timothy made up the feed. 

10. Old yard manure made by young cattle fed in yard on hay. It 
represents well-rotted yard manure in its usual washed condition. 

11. Average of six analyses. 

12. Average of two analyses in each case of manure made by fattening 
lambs. 

13. Part of the nitrogen believed by the analyst to have been lost in 
drying the samples for analysis. 



A large number of analyses of manure, including 
some of the foregoing, have been collected by Pro- 
fessor Storer in his "Agriculture in Some of its Re- 
lations with Chemistry." These are averaged below : 

PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OF MANURES 

Percentage composition : 





Nitro- 


Phos- 


Potas- 


Kind of manure : 


gen 


phorus 


sium 


Horse manure, 17 analyses, 


0.59 


0.150 


0.432 


Cattle - 53 


0.58 


0.123 


0.440 


Yard " 36 


0.51 


0.145 


0.440 


Sheep " II 


0.68 


0.176 


0.622 



THE COMPOSITION OF MANURE 



93 



Computed in pounds per ton, the foregoing analy- 
ses indicate the range and average in composition 
shown in Table XXII. 

Table XXII. Average Composition of Manures 
IN Pounds a Ton. 



Nitrogen 



Phosphorus 



Potassium 



Fresh manure with straw Range 
Average 

Same from cows Range 

Average 

" " fattening steers Range 

Average 

" " sheep Range 

Average 

Manure from hogs Range 

Average 

" " fowls Range 

Average 

Yard manure from cattle Range 

Average 

" " mixed Range 

Average 



9.8-14.6 

11 
8.6- 9.4 

9 

9.6-15.8 

11 

12.6-34.0 

20 

10.8-16.8 

13 
9.2-24.8 

18 
6.6- 7.8 

7 

8.8-10.6 

9 



1.8-3.2 

2.4 
2.5-2.8 

2.6 
2.7-3.2 

3.0 
3.4-5.2 

3.9 
3.4-7.3 

5.5 
6.1-8.8 

7.6 
2.4-2.6 

2.5 
3.0-6.4 

4.1 



9.0-15.0 

11 
6.0- 8.0 

7 
6.8- 8.3 

8 
9.8-23.4 

14 
5.3-12.1 

8 
4.1-18.6 

8 
2.5- 2.3 

3 
1.7-11.8 



CHAPTER V 
THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE 

Manure from horses — In 1889 the experiment sta- 
tion of Cornell university collected the manure from 
a stable on two successive Sundays, the horses being 
in the stable all day on that day of the week; the 
first Sunday from nine, the second from eight horses, 
or a total of 17 horses for one day, with the follow- 
ing result:* 

WEIGHT OF HORSE MANURE 

Total weight of manure and bedding, 1,025.5 pounds 
Weight of bedding, 68.5 

" of excrement, solid and liquid, 975.0 " 
" of excrement, a horse, a day, 56.2 " 
" manure and straw, a horse, a day, 60.3 " 
The weight of the horses is not given. 
The next year this experiment was repeated with 
ten horses for a period of 11 days, including one. 
Sunday. The horses were mostly grade draft horses, of 
about 1,400 pounds weight, doing heavy work and 
liberally fed on oats and hay. There was secured 
in the stables 3,461 pounds of clear excrement, or 
31.5 pounds per horse per day — about three-fifths of 
the total production, f 



♦Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 13. 
tibid., Bulletin 27. 

94 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE 95 

This experiment was repeated a year later with 
five horses, four work horses and one two-year-old 
colt, the five having a total weight of 6,410 pounds. 
The food consisted of a grain ration of 12 quarts of 
a mixture of oats, corn meal and wheat bran with 
hay, for the work horses, and hay only for the colt, 
the exact amount consumed not being given. One 
hundred and twenty-nine pounds of gypsum was 
used on the stable floor, and ii2}i pounds of straw 
was given for bedding. The total weight of manure 
was 555 pounds, including bedding and plaster, or 
48.8 pounds of excrement per 1,000 pounds live 
weight of animal per day, excluding the bedding and 
plaster. The manure was analyzed and found to 
contain 0.49 per cent nitrogen, 0.08 per cent phos- 
phorus and 0.179 per cent potassium.* 

These experiments indicate an average produc- 
tion of manure by horses amounting to about 50 
pounds per 1,000 pounds live weight per day, ex- 
clusive of bedding. 

Manure from dairy cows — In 1891 the same sta- 
tion collected the manure for one day from 18 Jersey 
and Holstein cows which were consuming daily 114 
pounds of hay, 893 pounds of silage, 186 pounds of 
beets and 154 pounds of a mixture of 12 parts wheat 
bran, nine parts cottonseed oil meal, three parts 
corn meal and one part malt sprouts. The outcome 
is given below if 



i^ 



*Ibid., Bulletin 56. 
t Ibid., Bulletin 27. 



96 FARM MANURES 

DAIRY COW MANURE 

Average weight of cows, 1,132 pounds 

Excrement produced, 1452 " 

" per cow, per day, 81 " 

" per 1,000 pounds, live weight, 71^ " 

In 1893 this experiment was repeated on a larger 
scale, 18 cows being included in the test for three 
days, and 17 for one day.* 

The average weight of the cows was 1,125 pounds, 
and during the test they consumed 780 pounds of hay, 
3,105 pounds silage, 475 pounds beets, 275 pounds 
bran, 52 pounds corn meal, 171 pounds cottonseed 
meal and 612 pounds straw. The cows produced 
per day and per 1,000 pounds live weight 74.2 pounds 
excrement (excluding bedding), found to contain 
0.351 pound nitrogen, 0.108 pound phosphorus and 
0.237 pound potassium. Somewhat more than 60 
per cent of the fertilizing elements in the feed and 
bedding was recovered in the manure. 

In 1907 the Ohio experiment station fed six cows 
for ten days, the average weight of the cows being 905 
pounds .and the feed consisting of 170 pounds bran, 
1^577 pounds corn silage, 400 pounds stover, 34 
pounds hay and 125 pounds distiller's grains, with 
240 pounds straw for bedding. The total produc- 
tion of manure was 3,705 pounds, or 61^ pounds 
per cow per day, or 57^ pounds excrement, exclud- 
ing bedding. Calculated per 1,000 pounds live 
weight, the daily production of manure was 68j4 

*Ibid., Bulletin 56. 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANU&fi 



97 



pounds ; or that of the excrement only, exclusive of 
bedding, 63.81 pounds.* 

Director E. B. Voorhees, of the New Jersey ex- 
periment station, states that the records kept at the 
Rutgers college farm show that the average produc- 
tion of excrement, unmixed with litter, has 
amounted to 70 pounds per day for cows averaging 
about 1,000 pounds in weight. f 

The above data, together with those furnished by 
the New York and Minnesota experiments, in which 
the dung and urine were separately collected, are 
summarized in Table XXIII, the bedding being ex- 
cluded in all cases : 



^y 



Table XXIII. Production of Manure by Dairy 
Cows. 



Station 



N.^ Y. (Cornell) 

«* « 
Minnesota .... 
New Jersey . . . 
Ohio 



Number 
of cows 
in test 



Average 

live weight 

of cows 



1.178 
1,132 
1,125 

1,666 
90S 



Quantity of excrement 
a day 



Per cow 



Perl.OOOlbs, 
live-weight 



81.81 
80.71 



63.40 
57.75 



69.45 
71.30 
74.20 
70.00 

63.81 



It appears from the above experiments that the 
larger cow produces more manure, in proportion 
to live weight, than the smaller one. The quantity 



♦ Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 183, p. 201. 
t Annual Report New Jersey Experiment Station, 1901, p. 141. 



98 FARM MANURES 

of manure is, of course, affected by the total quan- 
tity of food consumed, and also by the water drunk. 

Manure from fattening steers — Forty-eight grade 
Angus steer calves, bred in the "Panhandle" of 
Texas, and weighing 448 pounds each on the aver- 
age, were stabled at the Ohio experiment station 
January i, 1903. On May 15, 1904, 24 of these 
calves were turned on pasture, where they ran until 
November 15, when they were returned to the 
stable, where the other 24 had remained during the 
summer. On March 15, 1904, the cattle which had 
been continuously stabled were withdrawn from the 
test, their average weight being then 1,216 pounds. 
The 24 which had been pastured were fed until June 
15, their weight then averaging 1,083 pounds. The 
average weight of the 48 cattle, during the period 
when they were stabled, was 950 pounds. The total 
time they were stabled was equivalent to 624 months 
for one animal. During this time they produced 
699,504 pounds of manure, including bedding, or 
almost 350 tons, equivalent to 1,120 pounds, or a 
little more than one-half ton per animal per month, 
\ or practically 40 pounds per day for each thousand 
pounds of live weight.* 

Table XXIV gives the total quantities of the 
different kinds of feed consumed by these cattle 
while stabled and the straw used for bedding; the 
chemically dry substance in the feed and bedding, 
and the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium con- 
tained, computed on average analyses. 



*Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 183, p. 196. 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE 



99 



Table XXIV. Production of Manure by Fatten- 
ing Steers ; Quantity of Feed and Bedding, and 
Fertilizing Elements Contained. 



Feed and bedding 



Wheat bran 

Corn meal 

Linseed oil meal . . 
Dried beet pulp . . 

Mixed hay 

Clover hay 

Com silage 

Com stover 

Total in feed 

Straw and bedding 

Grand total 



Quantity! 
Pounds 



83,256 
100,121 

25,446 
2.088 

79,093 

12,817 
120,027 

23.707 



107,778 



Dry 

substance 
Pounds 



73,348 
85,103 
23,410 
1,775 
73,008 
10,856 
30,000 
21,336 

318,836 
97.431 

416,267 



Elements (Pounds) 



Nitrogen 



2,223 

1,822 

1,382 

32 

1,115 

265 

336 

247 

7,422 
636 

8,058 



Phos- 
phorus 



1,059 

308 

186 

1 

94 

21 

58 

30 

1,751 

57 

1,814 



Potas- 
sium 



1,112 

332 

289 

31 

1,018 
234 
368 
275 

3,659 
456 

4,115 



The increase in live weight of the cattle while 
stabled amounted to 33,492 pounds, or 105^ pounds 
for each hundred pounds of dry substance in the 
feed. This increase is estimated to have contained 
733 pounds of nitrogen, 210 pounds of phosphorus 
and 46 pounds of potassium, as computed on the 
basis of Lawes & Gilbert's investigations. The 
Ohio station's analyses of the manure indicate that 
it contained 0.496 per cent nitrogen, 0.237 per cent 
phosphorus and 0.473 P^^ ^^^t potassium, or 9.92, 
4.74 and 9.46 pounds, respectively, per ton, thus show- 
ing a total recovery in the manure of 3,472 pounds 
of nitrogen, or 46 per cent of that given in the feed 
and bedding; 1,659 pounds of phosphorus, or 92 per 
cent, and 3,311 pounds of potassium, or 81 per cent. 



100 FARM MANURES 

In the light of subsequent investigations it seems 
probable that the actual recovery of nitrogen was 
much greater than that indicated above, a part of 
the nitrogen having been lost in the analysis through 
the methods employed. 

Valuing nitrogen at 15 cents, phosphorus at 7 
cents, and potassium at 6^ cents per pound, the 
manure in this experiment would have a total value 
of $902, or $2.57 per ton, a value which the field 
experiments of the same station have shown to be quite 
possible to realize, when the manure is properly used. 

Feeding on earth or cement floors — This experi- 
ment was followed the next year by another,''' in 
which 58 grade Hereford and Shorthorn steers were 
fed from December i, 1904, to June i, 1905 — 182 
days. These steers were fed in two divisions — one 
of 28 head, which were fed on a cemented floor; and 
one of 30 head, which were fed on an earth floor, 
which had been packed by several years* use. 

Table XXV shows the quantities of different feeds 
consumed by each division during this test, with 
the amounts of dry substance and nitrogen, phos- 
phorus and potassium contained, as computed on 
average analyses. In both cases the stables were 
dusted occasionally with the finely powdered phos- 
phate rock, known as floats, using a little less than 
a pound per animal per day. The total quantity 
thus used is given in the table. The manure was 
allowed to accumulate for several weeks at a time, 
when it was weighed out. 



* Ibid., p. 197, 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE 



lOI 



The 28 steers fed on the cemented floor produced 
a total of 255,203 pounds of manure, including bed- 
ding and floats, or 50 pounds each per day, equiva- 
lent to 47^ pounds per day per 1,000 pounds live 
weight, the steers weighing on the average 874 



Table XXV. 
iNG Steers. 
Contained. 



Production of Manure by Fatten- 

QUANTITY OF FeEDS AND ELEMENTS 



Feeds 



Total 
quantity 
Pounds 



Dry 

substance 

Pounds 



Elements contained (Pounds) 



Nitrogen 



Phosphor- Potas 



28 steers on cement floor 



Wheat bran 

Corn meal 

Linseed oilmeal . . 
Cottonseed oilmeal 

Corn silage 

Corn stover 

Mixed hay 

Total feed 

Straw 

Floats 

Total 



9,448 
48,128 

5,593 

5,097 
63,231 

4,896 
31,814 



39,033 
4,753 



8,324 
40,909 

5,083 

4,685 
15,808 

4,406 
26.946 

106,161 
35,131 



141,292 



252.3 
875.9 
304.0 
346.1 
177.0 
50.9 
448.6 

2454.8 
230.3 



2,685.1 



120.1 
148.2 
40.9 
64.6 
30.6 
6.2 
37.8 

448.4 

20.6 

564.6 

,033.6 



126.2 

159.8 
63.7 
36.8 

194.2 
56.8 

409.3 

1,046.8 
165.2 



30 steers on earth floor 



Wheat bran 

Corn meal 

Linseed oilmeal . . 
Cottonseed oilmeal 

Com silage 

Corn stover 

Mixed hay 

Total feed 

Straw 

Floats 

Total 



2,325 


2,048 


62.1 


29.6 


53,654 


45.606 


976.5 


165.3 


6,695 


6.079 


363.5 


48.9 


6,125 


5.622 


415.9 


77.6 


54.355 


13.588 


152.2 


26.1 


3,440 


3.096 


35.8 


4.4 


36,986 


31,318 


521.5 


44.0 




107,357 


2,527.5 


395.9 


38,762 


34,886 


228.7 


20.5 


4.720 








560.7 


.... 


142,243 


2,756.2 


977.1 



31.0 
178.1 

76.1 

44.2 
166.9 

40.0 
475.8 

1012.1 
164.1 



1.176.2 



102 



FARM MANURES 



pounds when the test began and 1,230 pounds at the 
close, making a gain of one pound for every 10.65 
pounds of dry substance in the feed. 

From the 30 steers fed on the earth floor there 
was weighed out 236,399 pounds of manure, or 43.3 
pounds per steer per day, or 41.3 pounds per day per 
1,000 pounds average live weight, the steers averag- 
ing 867 pounds each at the beginning and 1,227 3-t 



Table XXVI. Percentage Composition of Manure. 



Constituents 



Water 

Ash 

Organic matter 

Nitrogen total 

Nitrogen water-soluble . . 

Phosphorus total 

Phosphorus water-soluble 

Potassium total 

Potassium water-soluble . 



A— On 


B — On 


A more (-f-) 


cement 




'or less (-) 


floor 




thanB 


80.526 


78.786 


+1.740 


3.006 


3.597 


-0.591 


16.467 


17.619 


-1.152 


0.786 


0.727 


+0.059 


0.498 


0.427 


+0.071 


0.313 


0.326 


+0.013 


0.089 


0.074 


+0.015 


0.417 


0.390 


+0.027 


0.363 


0.334 


+0.029 



the close of the test, the gain being one pound for 
9.9 pounds dry substance in the feed. Thus there 
was a loss of six pounds of manure per head per 
day on the earth floor as compared with that col- 
lected on the cement floor, presumably due .to the 
seepage of urine, and amounting to half a ton per 
steer, or 15 tons for the 30 steers during the six 
months of the test. 

Excluding the floats, the steers fed on the 
cemented floor produced 1,772 pounds of manure for 
1,000 pounds of dry substance in the feed and bed- 
ding, and those on the earth floor, 1,628 pounds. 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE IO3 

Four analyses were made of the manure produced 
on the cemented floor, under the supervision of the 
station chemist. Prof. J. W. Ames, and five of that 
on the earth floor, which indicated the composition 
shown in Table XXVI. 

The table shows more water and less ash and 
organic matter in the manure from the cemented 
floor; more nitrogen and potassium, both total and 
water soluble, and less total phosphorus, but more 
water-soluble phosphorus. 

In April, 1907, these stables were again filled with 
63 grade steers,* 21 of which were fed on the 
cemented floor and 42 on the earth floor, but no 
separate record was kept of the manure production 
on the two floors. The steers averaged 1,089 pounds 
each at the beginning of the test, and 1,234 pounds 
at .its close, 60 days later. They consumed feeds 
and bedding containing a total of 110,627 pounds 
of dry substance, and produced 178,740 pounds of 
manure, equivalent to 1,615 pounds of manure to 
1,000 pounds of dry substance in feed and bedding, 
or 49.37 pounds manure per steer per day, or 42.52 
pounds manure per day per 1,000 pounds live 
weight. 

Hogs following steers — In February, 1907, 42 
steers, in six lots of seven steers each, were placed 
in this stable, t on the earth floor, and were fed until 
July 20th, 150^^ days. 

The steers were confined to their pens throughout 



* Ibid., p. 200. 

t Ibid., p. 224. 



104 FARM MANURES 

the test, being watered in the pens. In each pen 
were kept three shoats, which had no other feed 
than the droppings of the steers, except that one lot 
received tankage in addition, the total quantity of 
tankage fed amounting to 135 pounds. 

Three of the lots of steers received corn silage, 
two years old, as part of their ration, while the other 
three lots were fed corn stover instead of silage. 

The silage-fed steers averaged 1,111.3 pounds in 
live weight during the experiment, and the dry-fed 
steers 1,101. 1 pounds. 

The feed consumed daily by the silage-fed steers 
is estimated to have contained 2^ pounds of dry sub- 
stance per thousand pounds live weight, and that 
by the dry-fed steers, 25.7 pounds. 

The silage-fed steers received bedding to the 
amount of 9.69 pounds daily per thousand pounds 
live weight, and the dry-fed steers to the amount of 
9.47 pounds, these amounts being two or three 
pounds greater than for the bedding used in previ- 
ous experiments. All the pens were dusted with 
floats at the rate of one pound per steer per day. 

The total manure taken from the silage-fed lots 
amounted to 174,805 pounds, and that from the dry- 
fed lots, to 206,320 pounds. The production of total 
manure, including bedding and floats, was therefore 
57.8 pounds per day per thousand pounds live weight 
for the silage-fed steers and 65.3 pounds for the dry- 
fed steers. 

Excluding bedding and floats, the average daily 
production of excrement was 47.2 pounds per day 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE IO5 

per thousand pounds live weight of steers for the 
silage-fed lots and 54-5 POunds for the dry-fed lots. 
This production of excrement, it will be observed, 
is considerably greater per thousand pounds live 
weight than that found in the previous experiments. 
The increase is due to the fact that the steers were 
kept constantly in the stable, and to the presence of 
the pigs. It is true that the pigs merely worked 
over material that would otherwise have gone into 
the manure, with the trifling exception above noted, 
but they added to this material a considerable quan- 
tity of water. 

The average total weight of the nine pigs follow- 
ing the silage-fed cattle amounted to i,i88 pounds, 
and that of those following the dry-fed steers, to 
1,270 pounds. Adding their weight to those of the 
steers, the average production of excrement for the 
3ilage-fed lots was 41.5 pounds per day per thousand 
pounds live weight, and that for the dry-fed lots was 
7.7 pounds. 

The larger production of manure by the dry-fed 
steers was due to a larger consumption of feed. 
These steers had a larger proportion of roughage m 
their ration, and consumed daily 2.7 pounds more 
dry substance per thousand pounds live weight than 
the silage-fed steers. 

The data for these tests in steer feeding are sum- 
marized in Table XXVIl . 

The table shows a recovery of excrement amount- 
ing to nearly two pounds for each pound of dry 
•substance in the feed on the cemented floor, and to 



io6 



FARM MANURES 



about 1.75 pound on the earth floor, where there 
were no pigs following the cattle. Where the pigs 
were added the recovery on the earth floor has been 
practically the same as that on the cemented floor 
without them. 

Manure from sheep — Bulletin 183 of the Ohio 
station reports the production of manure in two 

Table XXVII. Production of Manure by Fat- 
tening Steers — Summary. 





Average 

weight of 

steers 

Pounds 


Daily weight excrement 
(Pounds) 




No. steers 
in test 


Per 1,000 

pounds 
live weight 


Per 1,000 

pounds dry 

substance 

in feed 


Kind of floor 


48 
28 
30 
63 
20 
21 


950 
1,052 
1,047 
1,161 
1,111 
1,101 


34.2 
38.9 
34.2 
35.2 
41.5 
47.7 


1,856 
1,991 
1,797 
1,700 
1,843 
1,925 


Cement 

Cement 

Earth 

Earth and cement 

Earth 

Earth 



co-operative experiments in the feeding of western 
range lambs. In the first experiment, made during 
the winter of 1905-6, 160 lambs were fed over a 
period of 112 days. The lambs were fed in lots of 
40 each on an earth floor, and the manure was 
trampled under foot with the bedding, being re- 
moved once during the course of the experiment and 
again at its close. The average weight of the lambs 
during the test was 84 pounds, and there was a 
total production of 49,895 pounds of manure, includ- 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE lOj 

ing 4,950 pounds of bedding. The lambs received 
the following quantities of feeds and bedding: 

FEED AND BEDDING USED BY FLOCK OF LAMBS 



Corn, 


20,057 pounds 


Cottonseed oil meal, 


905 


Linseed oil meal, 


905 


Clover hay. 


11,110 '' 


Mixed alfalfa and bluegrass hay, 


15,826 


Oat straw. 


3,020 



Of the hay, 1,933 pounds was rejected, and was 
returned to the pens as bedding, together with the 
straw, which was chiefly oat straw. 

The nitrogen was determined in the hays and 
eight analyses were made of the manure. On the 
basis of these determinations and of average anal- 
yses for the other feeding stuffs the following bal- 
ance sheet is computed : 

AVERAGE WEIGHT OF ELEMENTS IN FEED, BEDDING AND 
MANURE 



Pounds nitrogen in feed and bedding, 


1,150 


phosphorus " 


137 


potassium " 


538 


" nitrogen recovered in manure, 


743 


" phosphorus " 


108 


" potassium " 


525 


Per cent nitrogen '' ^ " 


64 


phosphorus "' " " 


79 


potassium " 


97 



I08 FARM MANURES 

The total manure amounted to 33.15 pounds per day 
per 1,000 pounds live weight of animal, or to 29.86 
pounds of excrement, excluding bedding. 

This experiment was repeated the following win- 
ter, with 176 lambs, which were fed Ii5j4 days, 
during which they averaged 62^ pounds in live weight. 
They consumed feed and bedding as follows : 

FEED AND BEDDING USED BY FLOCK OF LAMBS 



Corn, 


21,917 pounds 


Linseed oil meal, 


930 " 


Clover hay. 


23.3 1 5 


Wheat straw. 


3,060 " 



Of the hay, 1,888 pounds was rejected, and was 
used for bedding. The feeds were not analyzed, but 
eight analyses were made of the manure as before. 
Assuming average composition for the feeds and 
bedding and taking the station analyses of the 
manure, the outcome of this test was as below : 



AVERAGE WEIGHT OF 


ELEMENTS IN FEED, 


BEDDING AND 






MANURE 




Pounds 


nitrogen in 


feed and bedding, 


950 


(( 


phosphorus 


(< a (( 


115 


(( 


potassium 


a (( (< 


521 


(( 


nitrogen recovered in manure. 


681 


(( 


phosphorus 


a a a 


109 


(( 


potassium 


<( (( << 


450 


Per cent nitrogen 


a (( (( 


72 


« 


phosphorus 


i( a if 


95 


(( 


potassium 


a a a 


86 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE ICQ 

While it is probable that an exact analysis of all 
the feed and bedding would have shown a larger 
quantity of the fertilizing elements than has been 
assumed in the above computations, thus reducing 
the percentage recovery, yet those accustomed to 
feeding sheep after the method employed in these 
tests will readily agree that such feeding involves 
the smallest possible loss of the manurial elements 
of the feeds, as the smaller quantities in which the 
urine is voided by sheep permits a more thorough 
absorption by the bedding than is practicable in the 
feeding of larger animals. 

Manure from pigs — The Cornell University ex- 
periment station fed three lots of grade Poland- 
China pigs,* three pigs in each lot, for one week on 
galvanized iron pans, collecting all the excrement. 
The pigs received the following quantities of feed : 

FEEDS CONSUMED BY PIGS ( POUNDS) 

Skim milk, 4i3-00 

Corn meal, 128.29 

Wheat bran, 4.57 

Linseed meal, 6.86 

Meat scraps, 61.76 

The pigs weighed 134 pounds each on the aver- 
age, and produced a total of 803.5 pounds of ex- 
crement, or 85.6 pounds per day per 1,000 pounds 
live weight of animal. The percentage composition 
of the manure was : 



i^ 



* Cornell University Experiment Station, Bulletin 56. 



no 



FARM MANURES 



ELEMENTS IN PIG MANURE: PERCENT 

Nitrogen, 0.84 

Phosphorus, 0.172 

Potassium, 0.266 

This composition would indicate a value per ton 
of $2.71. There was no doubt a larger quantity of 
manure than would have been the case if the pigs had 
had dry feed only, instead of milk, and it was higher 
in nitrogen because of the large amount of nitrogen 
contained in the meat scraps. 

Table XXVIII shows the estimated quantities of 
fertilizing elements given in the feed and recovered 
in the manure in this test. 



Table XXVIII. Recovery of Manurial Ele- 
ments IN Pig Feeding. 





Weight of various elements (Pounds) 




Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 




10.761 
8.028 

74.6 


2.266 
1.597 

70.5 


1.274 




1.103 




86.6 







Manure from hens — In 1888 the New York state 
experiment station* made a series of experiments on 
the production and composition of hen manure. In 
one of these experiments two pens, No. 6 and No. 
7, containing 13 to 16 laying hens each, about evenly 
divided between the larger and the smaller breeds, 



* N. Y. Agricultural Experiment Station, 8th Annual Report. 



THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE III 

were fed for ten months, pen No. 6 receiving a more 
nitrogenous ration than No. 7. The weight of 
manure collected from the roost platforms was at 
the rate of 13.4 pounds per hen per year, equivalent 
to 33.3 pounds of fresh manure, for pen No. 6, and of 
13 pounds, equivalent to 29 pounds fresh manure, 
from pen No. 7. 

In another experiment two pens of fowls, 12 in 
each, one pen of cockerels and one of capons, were 
fed for fattening. The cockerels produced manure 
at the rate of 42.8 pounds of fresh manure per year 
per fowl, and the capons at the rate of 43.6 pounds, 
while on the roosts, thus indicating a total annual 
production per fowl of 70 to 80 pounds, as probably 
at least as much manure is dropped through the day 
as while on the roosts. 

The composition of these manures is given in 
Table XXI, together with that of samples analyzed 
by other stations, but for which no data of produc- 
tion are given. 

In its fresh state hen manure contains 55 to 65 
per cent of moisture, so that it is relatively drier 
than the excrement of quadrupeds. Moreover, it is 
in such physical condition that it loses moisture 
readily, and thus soon comes to the air-dry state, 
which is practically the only form in which it is 
used. 



CHAPTER VI 
THE VALUE OF MANURE 

The Rothamsted experiments — The longest con- 
tinued experiments in the use of manures and fer- 
tilizers in the world are those of the Rothamsted 
experiment station, in England, which were begun 
in 1843 3.nd are still in progress. In one of these ex- 
periments wheat has been grown continuously on 
the same land, in ^'Broadbalk Field," either without 
any manure or fertilizer, or with various combina- 
tions of fertilizing chemicals, or with barnyard 
manure. The field contains about eleven acres and 
is subdivided into half-acre plots. 

Previous to 1843 the land had been cropped in a 
five-course rotation. The latest manuring was in 
1839, ^^^ the first experimental crop of wheat, har- 
vested in 1844, yielded but 15 bushels per acre on 
the unmanured land, although the season was one 
of more than average yield in general.* 

In this experiment plot 2 has received manure 
at the rate of 14 long tons, equivalent to 15^ short 
tons, or 31,366 pounds, per acre every year since the 
beginning of the test, and plot 3 has been con- 
tinuously unmanured for the same period. After the 
first eight years a change was made in the fertili- 
zing of the other plots in the test, but beginning 



* The Book of the Rothamsted Experiments, by A. D. Hall. 
112 



THE VALUE OF MANURE II3 

with the crop of 1852 plot 6 has received per acre 
every year a dressing made up of 200 pounds of 
ammonia salts, containing 43 pounds of nitrogen, 
392 pounds of superphosphate (or acid phosphate, 
as it is called in America), 200 pounds of sulphate 
of potash and 100 pounds each of the sulphates of 
soda and magnesia, a total of nearly 1,000 pounds 
per acre. Omitting the sulphates of soda and mag- 
nesia as probably unnecessary, the other materials 
w^ould cost, at present prices in this country, about 
$15.25, of v^hich $7.30 v^rould go for nitrogen in the 
ammonia salts. 

On plot 7 the same mineral substances have 
been used, in combination with 400 pounds of am- 
monia salts, thus raising the cost to $22.55, ^^^ on 
plot 8 the same minerals again, with 600 pounds 
of ammonia salts, at a total cost of $29.85 per acre 
annually. 

Both the manure and the fertilizers have been 
used in excessive quantities in this test, the object 
being primarily to study the feeding habits of the 
wheat plant, and only incidentally to obtain a guide 
to the use of fertilizers and manures; but the test 
is not without its value from the practical as well 
as from the scientific standpoint. 

In Table XXIX the results of this test are ar- 
ranged in six periods, the first of eight years pre- 
liminary to the final organization of the test, the 
others of ten years each. 

The table shows that there was a general depres- 
sion in yield during the period 1872 to 1881, a de- 



114 



FARM MANURES 



pression which was due to a series of unfavorable 
seasons. Eliminating this period, we see that the 
unfertilized yield fell slowly for 30 years, after 
which it remained practically stationary. 

Table XXIX. Average Yield of Wheat in Broad- 
balk Field in Bushels an Acre, by Periods. 





Treatment 


Period 


Plot 3 


Plot 2 


Plot 6 


Plot 7 


Plot 8 






200 pounds 


400 pounds 


600 pounds 






14 tons 


ammonia 


ammonia 


ammonia 




None 


manure 


salts with 


salts with 


salts with 








minerals 


minerals 


minerals 


1844-51 


17.2 


28.0 








1852-61 


15.9 


34.2 


27.2 


34.7 


36.1 


1862-71 


14.5 


37.5 


25.7 


35.9 


40.5 


1872-81 


10.4 


28.7 


19.1 


26.9 


31.2 


1882-91 


12.6 


38.2 


24.5 


35.0 


38.4 


1892-01 


12.5 


39.2 


23.1 


31.8 


38.5 


50 years 












1852-1901 


13.1 


35.6 


23.9 


32.9 


36.9 



The manured yield has arisen steadily from the 
beginning of the experiment, the increase from the 
manure rising from 10.8 bushels per acre during the 
first eight years to 26.7 bushels during the last 10 
years, averaging 22.5 bushels for the 50-year period 
1852 to 1901, an increase of 1.44 bushel of wheat 
for each ton of manure. 

The yield on plot 6, receiving 200 pounds of am- 
monia salts with minerals, has steadily diminished, 
ending the 50-year period with a lo-year average of 
23 bushels, or 16 bushels per acre less than that 
given by the manure for the same period. The 50- 



THE VALUE OF MANURE II5 

year average increase for this application has been 
10.8 bushels per acre, or 0.71 bushel for each dollar's 
v^orth of fertilizers at present valuations. 

On plot 7, with its larger application of a 
highly nitrogenous fertilizer, the yield stood, for the 
first lo-year period after the beginning of the appli- 
cation, at a point slightly above that given by the 
manure during the same period ; but during the four 
succeeding periods the yield on this plot has re- 
mained below that on the manured plot, finally end- 
ing the 50-year period more than seven bushels 
under it. The average increase on this plot for the 
50 years has been 19.8 bushels per acre, or 0.88 
bushel for each dollar's worth of fertilizers. 

On plot 8, with a still larger dressing of am- 
monia salts, the yield for 40 years was a little higher 
than on the manured land, but here also the yield 
has dropped below the manured yield for the last 10 
years. The average increase on this plot for the 50- 
year period has been 23.8 bushels per acre, or 0.80 
bushel for each dollar's worth of fertilizers, thus 
showing that the point of greatest net effectiveness 
in fertilizing lies somewhere between the applica- 
tions given to plots 7 and 8. 

The dressing on plot 8 has carried annually 
about 129 pounds of nitrogen, 28 pounds of phos- 
phorus and 83 pounds of potassium, while the 
manure applied to plot 2 is estimated by Direc- 
tor Hall to have carried each year about 200 pounds 
of nitrogen, 34 pounds of phosphorus and 195 
pounds of potassium. If we were to rate these ele- 



Il6 FARM MANURES 

ments at the same prices at which they are com- 
puted in the chemicals, the value of 15^ short tons 
of manure applied annually would amount to $50, 
or more than $3.00 per ton, and the increase would 
average 0.45 bushel of wheat for each dollar's worth 
of manurial chemicals. 

Such a comparison is manifestly unfair to the 
manure, both because the manure has evidently car- 
ried far larger quantities of fertilizing elements than 
the crops could utilize, and because these elements 
must necessarily exist in a less readily available 
condition in the manure than in the chemicals; but 
taking the results as they stand, the immediate 
effect from the manure has been about 60 per cent 
of that from the combination of chemicals most 
nearly comparable with the manure — that used on 
plot 8. 

Valuing wheat at 80 cents per bushel and straw 
at $2 per ton, the manure used in this test has pro- 
duced increase to the value of $1.45 per ton of 2,000 
pounds. 

The fact that the manure has carried to the soil 
much larger quantities of fertilizing elements than 
have been removed by the crops would lead us to 
expect a considerably greater residual effect from 
the manure than from the chemicals, were manur- 
ing and fertilizing to be discontinued — an expecta- 
tion which these experiments justify, as will be 
shown later. 

Experiments on barley — In another of the Roth- 
amsted experiments, conducted in "Hoos Field," 



THE VALUE OF MANURE II7 

barley has been grown continuously since 1852, both 
with and without manure and fertilizers. In this 
experiment, also, the manure has been used at the 
same rate of 14 long tons per acre, but the most 
effective chemical fertilizer has been made up of 
200 pounds of ammonia salts and 392 pounds of 
superphosphate without any potash. This applica- 
tion has produced a 50-year average increase of 28.6 
bushels per acre, raising the total yield to 43.9 bush- 
els ; and while the manure has produced an increase 
of 32.4 bushels, it is evident that it has been used 
in quantity far beyond the capacity of the crop to 
utilize it. 

Residual effect of manure — The most interesting 
feature of this experiment is that after 20 years the 
manuring was discontinued on one-half of the 
manured plot, and this half has been left without 
any manure or fertilizer since. The result has been 
that at the end of the 50-year period, or thirty years 
after the manuring had been discontinued, this land 
was still yielding twice as much barley as the con- 
tinuously unmanured land. The course of this ex- 
periment is illustrated by the accompanying dia- 
gram, compiled from Director Hall's "Book of the 
Rothamsted Experiments." 

In this diagram the upper heavy line shows the 
yield of the continuously manured plot, No. 7, by 
lo-year periods. At the end of 20 years this plot 
was divided into 7-1, on which the manuring was 
discontinued, and 7-2, still manured as before. The 
diagram shows that there was a rapid falling off in 



ii8 



FARM MANURES 



the yield of plot 7-1 during the first five years, but 
after that its yield has fallen much more slowly, 
maintaining an average about twice that of the land 
which has had no manure — plot i-o — during the 50 
years of the test. 

Diagram I. Barley in Hogs Field, Rothamsted. 
Average Yield of Grain Per Acre, for Succes- 
sive 10- Year Periods, 1852-1901, Inclusive. 





10 years 
1852- 1S61 


10 years 
1862-1871 


10 years 
1872-1881 


10 years 
1S82-1891 


10 years 
1892-1901 


BUSHELS 
PERACRE 

50 
















1 










<0 
30 










s 










1 














20 


















10 

















7-2 



7'/ 



1-0 



Plot 7-2, manured continuously; Plot 7-1, manured first 20 years, manur- 
ing then discontinued; Plot 1-0, continuously unmanured. 



Evanescent effect of chemicals — In striking con- 
trast with this outcome is that of another experi- 
ment in Broadbalk Field, in which two plots receive 
one season 400 pounds of ammonia salts and the 
next season 600 pounds of a mixture of superphos- 
phate and the sulphates of potash, soda and mag- 
nesia, the plots being alternately fertilized — the one 
receiving the ammonia salts while the other receives 



THE VALUE OF MANURE 1 19 

the minerals, and vice versa. The result has been 
a 50-year average production, for the years v^hen 
the ammonia, salts were applied, of 30.4 bushels per 
acre, against 15.3 bushels for the years v^hen the 
minerals only were given, the unfertilized yield aver- 
aging 13. 1 bushels, thus illustrating the paramount 
influence of nitrogen in producing increase of crop 
in this continuously grown wheat, and also showing 
the evanescent effect of the nitrogen carried in chem- 
icals, as compared with that carried in manure. 

It is true that phosphorus and potassium have been 
relatively less effective on the wheat in Broadbalk 
Field than on the barley in Hoos Field, as the 50- 
year .average increase of wheat from fertilizers car- 
rying these elements, but no nitrogen, has been less 
than two bushels per acre, whereas the increase of 
barley from similar fertilizers has been five bushels. 
Yet, after making full allowance on this score, it is 
evident that the effect of manure, while not so im- 
mediate as that of chemicals, is much more perma- 
nent. 

Excessive quantities of manure and fertilizers — 
In these English experiments both manure and 
chemicals have been applied in quantities contain- 
ing much more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium 
than the entire crops have carried away, conse- 
quently there has been a waste of fertilizer, so far 
as the immediate needs of the crops were concerned, 
for in addition to the reinforcements of such mate- 
rials, carried in the manure and chemicals, the soil 
itself has been able to furnish a considerable quan- 



I20 FARM MANURES 

tity of plant food, as shown by the unfertilized 
yields, that of wheat having remained practically sta- 
tionary at about 12 bushels per acre during the last 
30 years of the test. 

The Woburn experiments — Next to the Rotham- 
sted experiments, the longest continued field experi- 
ments in the world are those of the Woburn experi- 
ment station, on the estate of the Duke of Bedford. 
These experiments were begun in 1877, ^^^ ^^^ ^s 
one of their objects the study on a soil of different 
type of some of the problems suggested by the Roth- 
amsted experiments, the soil at Woburn being more 
sandy and containing less lime than that at Rotham- 
sted. In one of these experiments, in which wheat 
and barley are grown continuously, plot 11 has re- 
ceived annually a quantity of manure produced by 
steers fed a fattening ration, and described as "well- 
rotted, cake-fed dung."* The manure has been esti- 
mated to contain 200 pounds of ammonia (equiva- 
lent to 164 pounds of nitrogen) per acre. In the 
earlier years of the test the quantity of manure was 
reported at eight (long) tons per acre, but in the 
summary of the first 20 years' results, above referred 
to. Dr. Voelcker states that the average application 
has been about seven tons per acre, which would be 
equivalent to nearly eight tons of 2,000 pounds each. 

After five years this plot was subdivided, the 
manuring being discontinued on ii-a, but remaining 
as before on ii-b. 



* Journal Royal Agriculture Society of England, 8, 282. 



THE VALUE OF MANURE 



121 



The outcome of this test is shown in Diagram 
II, which represents the total yield for each lo-year 
period of the continuously unmanured land (plot 
o) ; of the land manured for five years, after which 
the manuring was discontinued (plot ii-a) ; of the 
continuously manured land (plot ii-b) ; and of plot 
6, receiving each year a chemical fertilizer com- 
posed of 392 pounds of superphosphate, 200 pounds 
of sulphate of potash, 100 pounds each of the sul- 

DiAGRAM II. Wheat and Barley at Woburn. 
Average Yield of Grain per Acre for Successive 
Ten-Year Periods, 1877-1906, Inclusive. 



WHEAT 
10 years 10 vears 10 vearR 

1877-1886 1887-1896 189'7-1906 



10 vears 10 yeara 10 years 
1877-1886 1887-1896 1897-1906 



6 

lib 



fta 
O 









i ^ 

lla 













—^ 

























































POUNDS 

PER 

ACRE 



20,000 
15,000 
10,000 
5,000 



Plot 6, chemical fertilizer; Plot lib, manured continuously; Plot lla, 
manured first 5 years, manuring then discontinued. Plot O, continu- 
ously unmanured. 

phates of soda and magnesia, and 260 pounds of 
nitrate of soda per acre. 

The diagram shows that during the first lo-year 
period the chemical fertilizer produced a much 
larger yield than the manure; the second period 
shows a slightly larger gain from the fertilizer than 
from the manure, but the difference is much less 
conspicuous than at first; the final period shows a 



122 FARM MANURES 

practically equal yield of wheat from both applica- 
tions, and a slightly larger yield of barley from 
the manure. In all cases there has been a consider- 
able reduction in yield, showing that neither fer- 
tilizer nor manure, in the quantities here employed, 
has been able to maintain the yield of these crops 
when grown continuously, but the reduction on the 
fertilized land has been much greater than on that 
receiving manure. 

Residual effect of manure at Woburn — Consider- 
ing now the land which has received manure only dur- 
ing the first five years of the 30-year period, we see that 
its yield remains much greater than that of the contin- 
uously unmanured land, up to the end of the period. 

It is probable that the land received for each 
crop (wheat and barley), about 40 tons of manure, 
of 2,000 pounds each, during the five years of appli- 
cation. This produced a total increase of crop, for 
the first ten years, amounting to 24 bushels of wheat 
and 126 bushels of barley. For the next 10 years 
the residual increase from this manuring was 46 
bushels of wheat and 124 bushels of barley, and for 
the last 10 years it was 45 bushels of wheat and 95 
bushels of barley, so that the total increase from 
the application of 40 tons of manure to wheat has 
amounted to 115 bushels, and that from the same 
quantity of manure given to barley, to 295 bushels, 
while it is evident that the end of the eft'ect of the 
manure is not yet reached. 

The Pennsylvania experiments — At Pennsyl- 
vania State College experiments in the use of 



THE VALUE OF MANURE 



123 



manures and fertilizers were begun in 1882. In these 
experiments corn, oats, wheat and clover are grown 
in a four-course rotation, each crop being grown 
every season. Three quantities of yard manure are 
used, six, eight and 10 tons per acre, in comparison 
with chemical fertilizers carrying 24, 48, and 72 
pounds of nitrogen per acre, combined with 21 
pounds of phosphorus and 83 pounds of potassium. 
The nitrogen is carried in dried blood to one series 
of plots, in nitrate of soda to another, and in sul- 
phate of ammonia to a third. Both manure and fer- 



Table XXX. Thirty- Year Average Yield and In- 
crease AT the Pennsylvania Experiment Sta- 
tion. 





Aver- 
age 
unfer- 


Applied an acre during each rotation 




Fertilizers containing 


Manure at the rate of 




tiliz- 
ed 

yield 
per 
acre 






Crop 


48 

lbs. 

nitro- 


96 

lbs. 
nitro- 


144 

lbs. 
nitro- 


12 

tons 


16 

tons 


20 

tons 






gen 


gen 


gen 










Increase an acre 


Com, bushels grain . . . 
" pounds stover. . . 


38.8 
1,898 


13.9 
1,021 


16.1 
1,102 


17.0 
1,109 


16.4 
792 


13.6 
641 


17.5 
915 


Oats, bushels grain 

" pounds straw .... 


31.5 
1,342 


9.0 
393 


10.5 
514 


10.3 
564 


7.9 
520 


9.6 
602 


9.7 
606 


Wheat, bushels grain . . 
pounds straw . . 


13.5 
1,264 


8.7 
1,124 


10.9 
1,552 


12.2 
1,763 


9.8 
1.095 


10.6 
1,363 


11.3 

1,372 


Clover, pounds hay . . • 


2,608 


1,544 


1,603 


1,620 


1,348 


1,595 


1.600 


Total value of increase, 
(grain and hay only) 




§24.14 


$28.44 


$30.12 


$24.96 


$25.73 


$28.24 



124 FARM MANURES 

tilizers are applied twice during each rotation — 
to the corn and wheat. 

The results of this work for the first 25 years are 
given in Bulletin 90 of Pennsylvania State Col- 
lege experiment station, and for the next five years 
in a supplement published in 191 1, from which the 
following comparisons are drawn : 

In Table XXX is shown the 30-year average yield 
of the unfertilized crops grown in this experiment, 
with the average increase produced by fertilizers 
carrying different quantities of nitrogen and by dif- 
ferent applications of manure, together with the 
value of this increase, reckoned as in previous com- 
putations of this kind. 

The increase given for each quantity of nitrogen 
is the average for two plots, one receiving its nitro- 
gen in dried blood and one in nitrate of soda. A 
third series of plots receives nitrogen in sulphate of 
ammonia, but this carrier has produced an injuri- 
ous effect on the crop when used in the larger quan- 
tities. 

The table shows that the three applications of fer- 
tilizers and manures have produced nearly the same 
total increase ; but the dressings of manure have car- 
ried more than twice as much nitrogen as the fer- 
tilizers, although the manure has contained only 
about four-fifths as much phosphorus and a little 
more than half as much potassium as the fertilizer. 
It seems probable that the low yield of corn under 
the medium application of manure has been due to 
some other cause than effect of the manure. 



THE VALUE OF MANURE I25 

Valuing corn at 40 cents per bushel, oats at 30 
cents, wheat at 80 cents, hay at $8 per ton, stover at 
$3 and straw at $2,* we find that the 30-year average 
increase from 12 tons of manure, 6 tons each on corn 
and wheat, has had a total value of $24.96, or $2.08 
per ton of manure ; that from 16 tons, 8 tons each on 
corn and wheat, has amounted to $25.73, or $1.61 
per ton of manure; and that from 20 tons, 10 tons 
each on corn and wheat, has amounted to $28.24, or 
$1.41 per ton of manure. 

The application of chemical fertilizers carrying 24 
pounds of nitrogen would cost $21.80; that contain- 
ing 48 pounds, $29.00; and that containing ^2 
pounds, $36.20 for each rotation. The value of the 
increase from the fertilizers containing the smallest 
amount of nitrogen has been $24.14; that from the 
medium quantity, $28.44; and that from the largest 
$30.12; or $1.11, 98 cents and 84 cents for each 
dollar expended in fertilizers. 

The total recovery of fertilizing elements has been 
nearly as great on the manured land as on that 
treated with fertilizers ; but the percentage recovery 
has varied with the amount given in the carrier. 

*The Bureau of Statistics, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, estimates the aver- 
age t arm pnces of the different crops for the 10 years, 1900-1909, as follows, 
for Ohio and Pennsylvania : 

Ohio Pennsylvania 

Com 48 cents a bushel 59 cents a bushel 

Oats 36 " " " 42 '* " " 

Wheat 86 " " " 87 " " " 

Hay $10.06 a ton $13.45 a ton 

The prices used in computing this and subsequent tables are therefore 
sutticiently low to leave an ample margin for cost of harvesting the additional 
crops produced by the fertilizers or manure, and also for the labor cost of ap- 
plying the fertilizers. No attempt is made to compute the cost of the manure, 
as that will vary with every farm and with different fields on the same farm 



126 FARM MANURES 

That is, the crops grown in this rotation have been 
able to obtain a large part of their nitrogen from 
other sources than fertilizers or manure, so that the 
proportion of nitrogen to phosphorus and potassium 
in the manure has been relatively greater than could 
be used vv^ith economy, thus suggesting that manure 
should be looked upon primarily as a carrier of nitro- 
gen, and that, considering the relatively great cost 
of this element in commercial fertilizers, it should 
be the policy to so care for the home supply of 
manure as to conserve its nitrogen to the utmost 
extent possible, and then to reinforce it v^ith phos- 
phorus and potassium. 

The Ohio experiments — In the experiments with 
fertilizers and manures conducted at the Ohio sta- 
tion on crops grown in rotation, plot i8 of the five- 
year rotation has received per acre i6 tons of open- 
yard manure every five years, eight tons each on 
corn and wheat, and plot 20 half that quantity, 
while plot 14 has received a chemical ferti- 
lizer, made up of nitrate of soda, dried blood, muri- 
ate of potash and acid phosphate, calculated to carry 
per acre about 51 pounds of nitrogen, 15 pounds of 
phosphorus and 75 pounds of potassium. This dress- 
ing is likewise distributed over the corn and wheat 
only, leaving the oats, clover and timothy without 
any treatment. 

The smaller application of manure is estimated to 
have carried about j6 pounds of nitrogen, 10 of 
phosphorus and 56 of potassium per acre. Valuing 
these elements as before, the quantity carried in 



THE VALUE OF MANURE 



127 



the manure would have cost $2.06 per ton, or $16.50 
per acre if purchased in chemicals, while the chem- 
ical fertilizers applied to plot 14 would cost, at the 
same rate of prices, $14.80 per acre for each rota- 
tion. The increase on plot 14 has amounted to an 
average value of $30.59 per acre for each rotation 
during the first 18 years of the experiment ; that on 
plot 18 to $39.32, and that on plot 20 to $25.34.* In 
other words, a dollar invested in chemicals has 
brought increase to the value of $2.07 on plot 14, 
while yard manure, carrying fertilizing constituents 
which would have cost $1.00 if purchased in chem- 
icals, has produced increase to the value of $1.19 
on plot 18, and $1.53 on plot 20, thus indicating an 
effectiveness for the constituents of yard manure of 
57 per cent and 74 per cent of that of the same con- 
stituents in the chemicals. 

This experiment is being duplicated on the 
Strongsville test farm of the Ohio station, the soil 
of which is a cold, heavy clay, much less responsive 
to treatment than that of the main station at Woos- 

Table XXXI. Comparative Effect of Manure 
AND Fertilizers at Strongsville. 



Plot 


Treatment 


Value of 

increase a 

rotation 


14 




$19.31 


18 


"Varri mnniirp 1 6 tnns 


22.59 


20 


" ♦' 3 tons 


13.38 









*Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Circular 120, 



128 FARM MANURES 

ter. The experiment has been in progress since 
1895, and the following results have been obtained 
as the average for the first 17 years, plots of the 
same number receiving the same treatment in both 
tests : 

A dollar in chemicals has here produced increase to 
the value of $1.30, while manure of equivalent chemical 
value has produced increase to the value of 68 cents in 
the larger, and 80 cents in the smaller application, these 
sums being 52 and 62 per cent respectively of the in- 
crease produced by an equivalent quantity of chem- 
icals on plot 14. 

This manure, be it remembered, in both tests was 
open barnyard manure ; that given to the corn hav- 
ing been subjected to the washing occurring in an 
ordinary barnyard for several winter months be- 
fore being applied to the crop, and that given to the 
wheat having suffered the additional loss incident 
to further exposure during the spring and summer 
months. By such treatment the manure is deprived 
of the more soluble, and therefore more immedi- 
ately effective portions of its constituents. 

Fresh vs. yard manure — In another experiment at 
the Ohio station cattle manure, taken directly from 
the stable, is compared with manure from cattle 
similarly fed, but which has lain in an open barn- 
yard through the winter and has thus been sub- 
jected to considerable leaching. Both kinds of ma- 
nure are spread on clover sod and plowed under for 
corn, the corn being followed by wheat and clover 
in a three-year rotation without any further manur- 



THE VALUE OF MANURE 129 

ing or fertilizing. The manure is used at the 
uniform rate of 8 tons per acre. 

Several analyses have been made of the manures 
used in this experiment, from w^hich the following 
figures are deduced as representing the approximate 
average composition and value per ton, computing 
nitrogen at 15 cents per pound, phosphorus at 11 
cents and potassium at 6 cents,* these valuations being 
employed .as representing the approximate cost of the 
different elements in tankage, bonemeal and muriate 
of potash, wheiT purchased in carloads. 

VALUE OF ELEMENTS IN MANURE 





Yard 


Stall 




manure 


manure 


Nitrogen, pounds a ton. 


9.5 


10.5 


Phosphorus *' " " 


2.0 


3-0 


Potassium '' " " 


7.0 


lO.O 


Value a ton, 


$2.06 


$2.50 



This experiment has been in progress for 15 years, 
and the increase produced by the yard manure has 
had an average value of $2.55 for each ton of manure, 
and that by the stall manure of $3.31 per ton. Reck- 
oned on the basis of market value of the chemical 
constituents, one dollar's worth of such constituents 
has produced increase to the value of $1.24 when 
carried in yard manure, and of $1.32 when in stall 
manure. 



* Equivalent to 12.3 cents per pound for ammonia, 4.84 cents for phos- 
phoric acid, and 4 92 cents for potash. 



130 



FARM MANURES 



• Reinforcement of manure — On two other plots in 
this test the two kinds of manure are treated with 
acid phosphate, which is mixed with the manure at 
the rate of 40 pounds per ton of manure a short 
time before spreading it in the spring, thus raising 
the chemical value of the manure to $2.38 per ton 
for the yard manure, and $2.82 for the stall manure. 
The increase of crop, however, has been raised to a 
value of $4.10 per ton of manure for the yard, 
and to $4.82 for the stall manure, thus giving a 
value of $1.72 for each dollar represented in the 
chemicals contained in the ton of treated yard man- 
ure, and $1.71 for the similarly treated stall manure. 
Comparing this outcome with that found on plot 
14, in the five-year rotation at Wooster, the in- 
crease on which has amounted to $2.07 for each 
dollar's worth of chemicals in the fertilizer, we see 
that when manure is used in moderate quantity and 
so reinforced as to adapt it to the needs of the soil 
to which it is applied, it may yield returns very 
closely approximating those given by the most 

Table XXXII. Cumulative Effect of Manure 
AND Fertilizers. 





Treatment 


Average value of increase an 
acre by five-year periods 


Plot 


First 
5 years 


Second 
5 years 


Third 
5 years 


14 
18 


Chemical fertilizer, 740 pounds . . . 


$21.37 
19.82 
13.02 


$32.91 
34.24 
21.28 


$37.33 
55.94 


20 


8 tons 


35.36 



THE VALUE OF MANURE I3I 

effective chemical combinations, pound for pound, 
of the elements carried, the immediate effective- 
ness of this reinforced manure being about 85 per 
cent of that of the chemical fertilizer. 

The claim is sometimes made that manure pos- 
sesses a greater value than would be indicated by its 
chemical composition, in the physical effect pro- 
duced on the soil and in favoring the distribution 
and work of the nitrif3nng bacteria, but the experi- 
ments above quoted would seem not to support this 
claim. It is true, however, that the cumulative 
effect of the manure is increasing more rapidly than 
that of the fertilizers, as shown in Table XXXII, a 
comparison of the average annual value of the in- 
crease per acre by five-year periods in the five-year 
rotation at Wooster. 

This study of the comparative effectiveness of 
manure and chemicals leads to the conclusion that 
the chief function of these substances is that of car- 
rying to the plant the elements necessary for its growth 
in such form that it may most readily make use of 
them; and that the efficiency of a plant nutrient, 
whether in the form of chemicals or manure, is pro- 
portionate to the solubility of its constituents and 
to their relationship to the constitution of the plant 
and to each other. 



CHAPTER VII 
THE WASTE OF MANURE 

Losses in the stable — The experiments quoted on 
page 85 show that, in the case of dairy cows at 
least, more than half the total value of the manure 
is found in the urine, and it is probable that cow 
manure is not exceptional in this respect. It is 
therefore evident that when the stable floor is so 
constructed as to permit the liquid to escape through 
open cracks to the ground below, a very large part 
of its fertilizing value may be lost. 

The Ohio experiment station replaced a plank 
floor, through which the liquid had been permitted 
to escape, with a cemented floor from which the 
liquid was conducted to a cistern. In this cistern 
there was collected from 30 cows in 125 days 24,000 
pounds of liquid, Avhich was found to contain 0.64 
per cent of nitrogen and 0.925 per cent of potassium, 
or a total of 155 pounds of nitrogen and 222 pounds 
of potassium, representing a total value of at least 
$36, at the current cost of these elements in com- 
mercial fertilizers. 

In this case the cows were well bedded with 
straw, which absorbed part of the liquid. The ma- 
jority of stable floors, however, are the ground itself, 
sometimes carefully puddled with clay, but more 
often left with such compacting as it gets from the 

132 



THE WASTE OF MANURE 



133 



animals standing on it. Many farmers assume that 
very little loss can occur on such a floor, but the 
experiment quoted on page 100 indicates that such 
losses may amount to more than is suspected. 

The data given in Chapter VI show that when 
manure is properly reinforced and handled without 
waste, either from exposure or from using it in 
larger quantity than the crop can utilize, it is a 

Table XXXIII. Value of Manure Produced in 
Six Months by One Steer Averaging 1,000 
Pounds Live Weight. 



Constituents 



Nitrogen 

Phosphorus . . 
Potassium . . 

Total manure 

Value a ton . . 



On cemented floor 



Pounds 



67.2 
26.8 
35.6 

8,550 



Value 



$7.56 
2.21 
1.60 

11.37 

2.66 



On earth floor 



Pounds Value 



54.0 
24.2 
29.0 

7,434 



$6.07 
2.00 
1.30 

9.37 

2.52 



conservative estimate to rate the potential crop- 
producing value of its nitrogen, phosphorus and 
potassium at 75 per cent of the cost of the same ele- 
ments when purchased in nitrate of soda, acid phos- 
phate and muriate of potash. On this basis Table 
XXXIII has been computed from the data given in 
Tables XXV and XXVI, calculating the total value 
on the average production of manure per thousand 
pounds live weight. 



134 FARM MANURES 

Deducting the floats, the cost of which for the six 
months was 64 cents per thousand pounds live weight 
for the steers on the cemented floor, and 60 cents for 
those on the earth floor, the total value of the 
manure was $10.73 ^or the thousand-pound steer on 
the cemented floor, and ^S.yy for the steer of equiv- 
alent weight fed on the earth floor. 

Reference to the table giving the feed statistics 
will show that the steer fed on the earth floor 
received less food than the one on the cemented 
floor. This point, however, does not affect the fol- 
lowing statement, which shows the total quantity 
of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contained in 
the feed, bedding and floats, for each lot of steers ; 
the quantity recovered in the manure, and the per- 
centage which this recovery bears to the original 
amount : 

ELEMENTS GIVEN IN FEED AND RECOVERED IN MANURE 
ON CEMENTED AND EARTH FLOORS 



On cemented 


On earth 


floor 


floor 


Nitrogen in feed, etc., pounds, 2,685 


2,756 


" manure, " 2,006 


1719 


" per cent recovered, 74.7 


62.4 


Phosphorus in feed, etc., pounds, 1,033 


977 


" " manure, '' 799 


771 


" per cent recovered, 77.5 


78.9 


Potassium in feed, etc., pounds, 1,212 


1,176 


" manure, " 1,064 


922 


" per cent recovered, 87.8 


78.4 



THE WASTE OF MANURE I35 

The percentage recovery of phosphorus was as 
large on the earth as on the cemented floor, as would 
be expected from the fact that this element is voided 
in the solid portion of the excrement, but the recov- 
ery of nitrogen and potassium was considerably 
smaller on the earth floor. Had the proportionate 
recovery of these elements been as great on the 
earth as on the cemented floor, the manure taken 
from the earth floor would have contained 339 
pounds more nitrogen and 103 pounds more potas- 
sium than it did, thus having a total value greater 
by $50 than that actually recovered. 

The cattle fed in these experiments had been de- 
horned, and they v^^ere fed in lots of six to eight 
steers each, running loose in stables which gave to 
each steer about 50 square feet of space. 

The cemented floor had been made by the 
ordinary labor of the farm, and at a total cost of 
about 6 cents per square foot, so that more than half 
the cost of the floor was recovered in the superior 
value of the manure made upon it during the six 
months. 

It will be observed that in the discussion of this 
experiment the comparisons are based on the 
assumption that the fertilizing elements of the 
manure, as taken from the two floors, were in an 
equally available condition. The station's analyses, 
however, show that this was not the case, there 
being a greater loss on the earth floor of the water- 
soluble portions of the different constituents, as 
shown on the following page : 



136 FARM MANURES 



POUNDS OF WATER-SOLUBLE ELEMENTS A TON OF 
MANURE 





Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 


On earth floor, 


8.54 


1.48 


6.69 


On cement floor, 


9.96 


1.80 


7.25 



Losses in the feed lot — Throughout the corn-belt 
states it is the custom to feed cattle in open lots, 
often around straw stacks, the manure being 
trampled under foot and mixed with straw and corn- 
stalks. This method unquestionably involves the 
loss of a very large part of the value of manure 
through the leaching action of the rain. The fact 
that no stream of brown liquid is seen running from 
the feed lot is no evidence that this loss is not tak- 
ing place, for the mulch of manure and litter is just 
what is needed to keep the ground beneath in con- 
dition to absorb the liquid, whether from manure or 
from rainfall. 

We see the showers falling on the plowed fields 
and do not think it strange that the water is at once 
absorbed by the loose earth, but the ground under 
the feeding yard is in as good a condition to absorb 
the water as in the field, and the accumulating heap 
of manure and litter serves as a sponge to receive 
and hold the excess of moisture until the ground 
below can dispose of it. 

Loss from heating — The prevention of the waste 
which manure undergoes by drainage through loose 
stable floors or from barnyards is a simple physical 



THE WASTE OF MANURE 1 37 

problem which requires for solution only the 
mechanical methods of tight floors and shelter from 
excess of rain; but the loss which results from the 
chemico-vital processes by which the nitrogen of 
the manure is converted into ammonia gas is not so 
easily prevented. 

For the manure heap is at once occupied by organ- 
isms similar to those by which the organic matter 
of the soil is reduced to humus, and if left un- 
checked their work eventually results in the con- 
version of the heap into a small quantity of ash. 

Bacteria of the manure heap — Two general classes 
of organisms are concerned in this work — the one 
living near the surface where air circulates, and the 
other limited to the lower and more compact por- 
tions of the heap. The fermentation produced by 
the first class is known as aerobic, and that by the 
second class as anaerobic. In aerobic fermentation 
much heat is evolved, the carbon of the matter un- 
dergoing decay is united with oxygen and is given 
off as carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas), while its 
nitrogen, liberated from its combinations with car- 
bon, is recombined with hydrogen derived from the 
moisture of the heap and passes off as ammonia 
gas, or there may be a combination of this gas with 
carbon dioxide, forming ammonium carbonate, 
which also is volatile. 

When the manure heap contains a considerable 
portion of soluble nitrogen compounds, as when it 
contains the urine as well as the solid excreta, there 
may be a direct conversion of these compounds into 



138 FARM MANURES 

nitric acid, by combination with atmospheric oxy- 
gen, which will sink to the lower portions of the 
heap, to serve there as a source of oxygen to the 
organisms inhabiting the layers from which the air 
is excluded, and which feed upon the carbon of the 
vegetable refuse in the manure. By this action 
the nitric acid is decomposed, and its nitrogen may 
escape as free nitrogen into the air. 

Losses in rotting — In the rotting of manure, there- 
fore, there are three channels of loss : (i) The liber- 
ation of carbonic acid gas, by the breaking down 
of the carbonaceous material and thus reducing the 
humus matter; (2) the formation of ammonia and 
ammonium carbonate and its escape into the air; 
and (3) the liberation of free nitrogen. In this 
way, if the manure heap is left exposed long enough, 
it will be as effectually deprived of everything of 
value for plant food, except its mineral elements, 
as if it had been burnt. But if to these sources of 
loss be added the leaching of the heap with water, 
the mineral substances also may be dissolved out 
and carried away. These losses, moreover, may go 
forward for a considerable time without reducing 
the weight of the heap, for the rotting process makes 
the heap capable of containing a larger proportion 
of water, by breaking down the litter and thus mak- 
ing the interstices smaller, so that water will take 
the place of the elements which have been lost. 

The rotting of the manure tends to make its con- 
stituents more soluble, and if rotting could be ac- 
complished without escape of ammonia gas on the 



THE WASTE OF MANURE 



139 



one hand and without leaching on the other, it would 
add to the value of the manure. This result, how- 
ever, is very (difficult of attainment, and the general 
outcome of the rotting process is a considerable loss 
of nitrogen in the gaseous form, and a conversion 
of both the nitrogenous and mineral substances into 
a more soluble condition, in which they are caught 
and washed out of the heap by the rain. 

Relative value of the nitrogen and ash constitu- 
ents of manure — On the black soils of the central 
provinces of India cattle dung is largely used 
for fuel during the dry season, and during the rainy 
season much of it is allowed to go to waste. The 
improvidence of this practice is shown by the fol- 
lowing experiment, made by the Nagpur experiment 
farm and reported by D. Clouston in the Agricul- 
tural Journal of India for July, 1907: 

Table XXXIV. Nitrate and Manure on Irri- 
gated Wheat in India. 





Average yield of grain in pounds 




Treatment 


5 years 
1890-94 


5 years 
1895-1900 


5 years 
1901-06 


15 years 
'90-06 


bo ui 

II 


Saltpeter, 240 pounds 

Cattle dung, 12,800 pounds . . . 
Ashes of 12,800 pounds dung . . 


931 
717 
584 
486 


826 
915 
618 

371 


1,278 

1,500 

820 

627 


1,012 

1,044 

677 

495 


517 
594 
182 







The table shows the same cumulative effect from 
systematic treatment which has been shown in other 
experiments of this character, the manured yield 



140 FARM MANURES 

being twice as great during the third five years of 
the test as during the first. It is true that this was 
a period of better seasons, as shown by the yield of 
the untreated land, but the increase over the un- 
manured yield rose on the dunged land from 231 
pounds during the first five years to 873 pounds dur- 
ing the third period. 

The manure ash has improved the yield, but to a 
far less degree than the manure itself, the experi- 
ment thus confirming such long-continued tests as 
those at the experiment stations of Rothamsted, 
Woburn, Pennsylvania, Canada and Ohio, in show- 
ing that as cropping is continued the addition of 
nitrogen becomes more and more essential to the 
production of wheat. This is further exemplified by 
the effect of the saltpeter, which was in this case 
presumably the nitrate of potash and not that of 
soda, and which has produced a much greater rela- 
tive effect than the similar application has done on 
the American soils. 

Losses from leaching — When manure is thrown 
from the stable into the barnyard it contains on 
the average about 80 per cent of water if from cat- 
tle, or about 70 per cent if from horses. Of this 
water a small fraction — less than 5 per cent — is the 
hygroscopic water of the organic matter in the 
manure, but the greater portion is liquid water 
from the alimentary and urinary canals. This 
water, whichever its source, holds in solution the 
major part of the salts which give the manure its 
value for soil fertilization, that part contained in the 



THE WASTE OF MANURE I4I 

undigested organic residue being a comparatively 
insignificant -factor. 

Let such material, saturated as it is to its full 
capacity for holding moisture, be exposed to rain 
under conditions which allow the escape of drainage, 
and the liquid of the manure will be replaced by 
that from the clouds, the former flowing away, or 
being absorbed by the soil beneath the heap, and 
carrying with it the salts contained. This fact is 
most familiarly illustrated in the leaching of ashes. 
In regions where wood is used for fuel the ashes 
are placed in a V-shaped receptacle, the bottom of 
which rests in a trough — many of the older readers 
will remember the trough hewn out of a log which 
served the pioneers for this purpose — and under the 
end of the trough a vessel is placed to catch the 
drainage. Water is poured on the top of the vat 
until the entire contents are saturated, when a 
brown stream begins to issue from the bottom. 
More water is added as long as the liquid collected 
will float an tgg, but when it becomes so weak that 
the egg sinks quickly then the leaching is discon- 
tinued. In this way the pioneer farmer's wife se- 
cured potash for soap making; but the potash of the 
manure heap is undoubtedly more easily leached out 
than that of the ash vat, for it is already largely in 
solution in the urine. 

The experiment station of Cornell University has 
conducted some noteworthy investigations on this 
point. In 1889 this station placed a lot of horse 
manure, taken from a tight floor and weighing 529^ 



142 



FARM MANURES 



pounds, of which :^^y2 pounds was straw bedding, 
in a wooden box which was not water tight and ex- 
posed it out of doors from April ist until September 
30th, the box being surrounded with similar manure 
in order that the whole might heat up evenly, the 
object being to subject the manure to the same con- 
ditions as if it had been thrown loosely in a heap 
from the stable door. The box was left exposed for 
six months during the summer, after which its con- 
tents were found to weigh but 372 pounds. The 
analysis of this manure, before and after the six 
months' exposure, is given below : 



LOSSES IN EXPOSED MANURE 






Percentage composition of manure 




Water 


Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 


Fresh manure 

After six months 


70.79 
81.74 


0.51 
0.46 


0.092 
0.066 


0.440 
0.257 



Not only was there a loss in weight, but also in 
the percentages of fertilizing elements contained. 
Calculated per ton of manure, the results of this 
test were as below : 



LOSSES IN EXPOSED MANURE 






Pounds each original ton of manure 




Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 


Value 


Before exposure 

After " 

Percentage loss 


10.2 
6.5 

36. 


1.84 
0.92 

50. 


8.8 
3.6 

60. 


$1.98 
1.12 

43. 



THE WASTE OF MANURE 



143 



The net loss in value amounted to 43 per cent, 
on the valuation here employed, assuming that the 
constituents found in the manure at the end of the 
period v^ere equally effective with those at the be- 
ginning, pound for pound.* 

The following season this experiment was re- 
peated with a pile of 4,000 pounds of horse manure 
and one of 10,000 pounds of cow manure, the ex- 
periment extending over six spring and summer 
months, as before. This season proved to be a very 
rainy one, and when the manure was taken up the 
horse manure weighed but 1,730 pounds, a loss of 
57 per cent in gross weight, and the cow manure 
but 5,125 pounds, a loss of 49 per cent. Calculated 
per ton of manure, the outcome was as below : 

LOSSES IN EXPOSED MANURE 





Pounds each original ton of manure 




Nitrogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 


Value 


Horse manure : 


9.80 
3.89 

60. 

9.40 
5.60 

41. 


3.25 
1.71 

47. 

2.82 
2.29 

19. 


14.94 
3.59 

76. 

7.97 
7.30 

8. 


$2.41 


After " 


0.84 
65. 


Cow manure : 


1.89 


After " 


1.29 




32. 







The loss in value amounted to 65 per cent for the 
liorse manure and 32 per cent for the cow manure. 



* Cornell University Experiment Station, Bui. 13 



144 



FARM MANURES 



A valuable contribution to this subject has been 
made by Prof. F. T. Shutt, of the Dominion experi- 
mental farms, who placed four tons of a mixture of 
equal parts of horse and cow manure in a weather- 
tight shed, and an equal quantity in an outside bin, 
open to the weather but with sides and bottom prac- 
tically water tight. These manures were analyzed 
monthly for a year. The more important data are 
given in Tables XXXV and XXXVI, reproduced 
from Bulletin 31 of that station. 

Table XXXV. Weights (Pounds) of Fertilizing 
Constituents in "Protected" and "Exposed"' 
Manures. 





Fresh 


At the 

end of 

3 months 


At the 

end of 

6 months 


At the 

end of 

9 months 


At the 

end of 

12 months 


Fertilizing constituents 


1 
1 

PL, 


1 
1 






1 


X! 







1 


1 
1 


Weight of manure 

Organic matter 


8000 
1938 

48 
25 

15 

62 

54 


8000 
1938 

48 
25 

15 

62 
54 


2980 
880 

40 

25 

20 

65 
62 


3903 
791 

34 
23 

15 

4S 
45 


2308 
803 

39 
26 

19 

59 
52 


4124 
652 

33 

22 

15 

44 
42 


2224 
760 

37 
25 

21 

60 
56 


4189 
648 

29 

21 

17 

41 
38 


2158 
770 

37 
24 

19 

60 

55 


3838 
607 


Total nitrogen 


31 


Total phosphoric acid . . 
Available phosphoric acid 
*Total potash 


21 
16 
40 


t Available potash 


35 



* Soluble in strong hydrochloric acid. 
t Soluble in dilute citric acid. 

From the data given in Table XXXV, Professor 
Shutt calculates the loss of fertilizing constituents 
as shown in Table XXXVI. 



THE WASTE OF MANURE 



145 



Table XXXVI. Loss of Fertilizing Constituents 
IN THE Rotting of Manure. 





At the end 


At the end 


At the end 


At the end 




of 


of 


of 


of 




3 months 


6 months 


9 months 


12 months 


Fertilizing constituents 










13 




T) 









'O 


0) 


tJ 


<D 


TJ 




-O 


















OJ 




iri 





irf 










OJ 







R 


^ 




ft 





X 


u 


^ 




P. 


W 


P. 


W 


CM 


W 


Ph 


W 




% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


Loss of organic matter . . 


55 


60 


58 


65 


60 


67 


60 


69 


Loss of nitrogen 


17 


29 


19 


30 


23 


40 


23 


40 


Loss of phosphoric acid. . 


None 


8 


None 


12 


None 


16 


4 


16 


Loss of potash 


None 


22 


3 


29 


3 


34 


3 


36 



In 1888, Director Voorhees, of the New Jersey 
experiment station, began a series of experiments on 
this subject which are still in progress. In these 
experiments 100 pounds each of fresh dung and of 
fresh total excrement, liquid and solid mixed, and 
in both cases without litter and from cows, are 
collected and placed in galvanized iron boxes, 8 
inches deep and with perforated bottom, so as to 
permit drainage, though covered with wire gauze 
above and below, in order to prevent the escape of 
solid matter. The boxes with their contents are 
placed in the open air and allowed to remain undis- 
turbed for several weeks or months. The manure 
is analyzed both before and after exposure. The 
results of this work are averaged in Table XXXVII 
for eight years, the reports of the station for 1902 
and 1903 not giving the necessary data for those 
years. 



146 



FARM MANURES 



The average duration of the test was 77 days, and 
the average final weight of the sample was 64.4 
pounds for the solid manure, and 59.3 pounds for the 
solid and liquid. 

Table XXXVII. Loss of Manure in Leaching at 
New Jersey Experiment Station. 





Percentage 
Composition 


Pounds each original 
ton of manure 


Constituents 


Before 
leaching 


After 
leaching 


Before 
leaching 


After 
leaching 



Solid manure 



Water 

Nitrogen . . 
Phosphorus . 
Potassium . . 



83.983 


79.723 




0.348 


0.433 


6.96 


0.139 


0.158 


2.78 


0.203 


0.168 


4.06 



5.58 
2.04 
2.16 



Solid and liquid manure 



Water 

Nitrogen . . . 
Phosphorus . 
Potassium . . 



85.823 


80.005 




0.427 


0.495 


8.54 


0.112 


0.154 


2.24 


0.291 


0.279 


5.82 



5.87 
1.82 
3.30 



Table XXXVII shows that the percentage of 
nitrogen and phosphorus has been higher in the 
leached than in the fresh manure, but when we 
apply the percentage found at the end of the leach- 
ing period to the actual quantity of manure left we 
find that, in the case of the solid manure, of the 
0.348 pound of nitrogen contained in the original 100 
pounds of manure the residue contains but 0.279 
pound; the phosphorus has been reduced from 
0.139 pound to 0.102 pound, and the potassium from 
0.203 pound to 0.108 pound. 



THE WASTE OF MANURE I47 

To put it in another form : A ton of the fresh dung 
would have contained 6.96 pounds of nitrogen, 2.78 
pounds of phosphorus and 4.06 pounds of potassium, 
the whole worth $1.59 if we compute nitrogen at 
15 cents per pound, phosphorus at 11 cents, and 
potassium at 6 cents; but after about two and 
one-half months' exposure there is left but 5.58 
pounds of nitrogen, 2.04 pounds of phosphorus, and 
2.16 pounds of potassium, reducing the total value to 
$1.19, a loss of more than 25 per cent. 

Taking the total excrement, solid and liquid, we 
find that a ton when first put out would have con- 
tained 8.54 pounds nitrogen, 2.22 pounds phosphorus 
and 5.82 pounds of potassium, having a total value of 
$1.87, but after leaching there would remain only 
5.87 pounds nitrogen, 1.82 pounds phosphorus, and 
3.30 pounds potassium, the value being reduced to 
$1.28, a loss of nearly 33 per cent, thus illustrating 
again the fact that the liquid portion of the manure 
is the first to waste. 

In 1907 the Ohio station exposed lots of manure, 
of 1,000 pounds each, for three months, from Jan- 
uary until April, the manure being analyzed when 
first exposed and again when taken up, by Mr. J. 
W. Ames, chemist to the station. In this experi- 
ment four of the lots were treated with preserva- 
tive or reinforcing materials, while the fifth lot was 
left untreated. 

The average weight of the manure was as great — 
in some instances greater — when taken up than 
when put out; but the analyses revealed the fact 



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148 



THE WASTE OF MANURE I49 

that there was a considerable substitution of water 
for the organic matter and ash elements in the 
manure. Calculated per ton of manure, this experi- 
ment furnishes the data shown in Table XXXVIII. 

Taking the average analyses, the ton of manure 
originally put out in this test was worth $2.50; 
when taken up, although it still weighed a ton, its 
value had been reduced to $1.74, a loss of nearly one- 
third. 

These Ohio experiments show that there may be 
a considerable loss in the value of the manure heap 
without any diminution in weight or bulk, the reduc- 
tion of its materials to finer particles, through the 
process of decay, enabling it to retain a larger pro- 
portion of water, which gradually displaces the 
organic matter and ash constituents, each fresh 
rainfall taking the place of water saturated with 
fertilizing elements, just as the pail of clear water 
poured on the top of an ash vat displaces an equal 
quantity of brown lye at the bottom. 

In these experiments again the Ohio station's 
tests show that it is usually in the water-soluble, 
and, therefore, the more valuable constituents, 
that the manure suffers most loss. 

The enormous waste of manure — The United 
States department of agriculture estimated the 
number of cattle in the United States on January 
I, 1907, at 72,533,000; the number of sheep at 53,240,- 
000, and the number of swine at 54,794,000. If we 
assume that 10 sheep or swine are equivalent to one 
cattle beast in manure production, we shall have a 



150 FARM MANURES 

total of 83,000,000 cattle. These, of course, are of 
all ages, and may be assumed to be equivalent to 
60,000,000 one-thousand pound cattle. If these are 
yarded four months each winter, there should be a 
total manure production during that period of 150,- 
000,000 tons, having a potential crop-producing 
value of at least $200,000,000, over and above all cost 
of handling. It is a very conservative estimate to 
place the waste of this manure under the prevalent 
system of management at 25 per cent, or $50,000,000 
annually. It is probably more nearly twice that 
amount. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE PRESERVATION OF MANURE 

Manure loses nothing but water in drying — The 
fact is familiar to the farmer that when manure is 
loosely piled the evolution of ammonia gas begins 
within a few hours ; the overnight accumulations 
in the stable give off this gas by morning, and it is 
constantly produced in the heaps into which the 
manure has been thrown, as evidenced by the odor 
of ammonia constantly pervading such heaps, an 
odor greatly intensified when the heaps are stirred, 
by the sudden liberation of the gas which has ac- 
cumulated in their interstices. 

This fact, of the increase in odor from freshly 
stirred manure, led to the practice of piling the 
manure in small heaps in the field, to be distributed 
just ahead of the plow, the assumption being that 
it was the drying of the manure that caused its loss 
of ammonia; but an experiment made by Prof. 
F. T. Shutt, of the Dominion experimental farms, 
shows that the loss of nitrogen due to mere drying 
is insignificant. In this experiment two samples of 
manure were dried in thin layers, with the result 
indicated in Table XXXIX. 

The chief source of the nitrogen loss of manure 
is to be found in the work of the bacterial organisms 
which pervade the manure heap and which cause the 

151 



152 



FARM MANURES 



combination of its nitrogen with hydrogen in the 
form of ammonia. Moisture is indispensable to all 
plant life (and the bacteria are plants) and it is 
moreover water which furnishes the hydrogen of 
the ammonia; hence, when the drying is complete 
there is no further production of ammonia, and 
consequently no further loss of nitrogen. 

The best place to preserve manure is in the soil — 
If, therefore, it were practicable to at once quickly 
and thoroughly dry the accumulations of the stable, 

Table XXXIX. Loss of Nitrogen in Manure by 
Drying in Thin Layers. 





Nitrogen in manure 


Manure 


Per cent 


Lbs. a ton 


Value ^ 




.515 
.505 

.490 
.466 


10.3 
10.1 

9.8 
9.3 


$1.75 
1 72 


after " 




1.67 


after " 


1.58 







and keep them in this condition until the opportu- 
nity came to incorporate them with the soil, there 
would be the least possible loss of fertilizing value. 
The nearest approach to this condition which it is 
practicable to attain on the ordinary farm is to haul 
the manure daily from the stable to the field, when 
weather and other conditions permit, and spread it 
there at once and as uniformly as possible. 

The manure spreader as a manure preserver — In 
humid climates, however, there will be wet days, 



THE PRESERVATION OF MANURE 1 53 

when the team cannot go upon the fields intended 
for tillage without causing more damage than would 
be compensated in the saving of the manure. There 
will be other days when urgent work of other kinds 
may make it seem impossible to give the time neces- 




Manure shed on the left, stable on the right, manure spreader ready for 
its load. 

sary to this care of the manure, although such emer- 
gencies may be reduced to the minimum by keeping 
a manure spreader expressly for this work, and so 
locating it that it will be more convenient to drop 
the morning's accumulations of the stable into the 
spreader than anywhere else ; such an arrangement 
as is shown on this page. 



154 FARM MANURES 

Times when manure cannot be drawn to the 
field — There will also be days when the ground will 
be covered with snow, which interferes with the 
working of the manure spreader, and which, if it 
should go off in a flood of rain, might carry with it 
part of the more soluble portion of the manure, 
although the danger of loss from this source is 
probably smaller than is generally supposed. The 
loss Avhich manure suffers from leaching in open 
barnyards is undoubtedly many times greater than 
that resulting from spreading on the snow. 

There will be other days when the land upon 
which it is desired to put the manure is occupied 
by crops, although this difficulty might often be met 
by systematic planning of the manuring, so that 
meadows, pastures and orchards would receive their 
share when the manuring of the tillage land would 
be impracticable. 

Under the best of management, however, there 
will be some manure which cannot be drawn out at 
once to the field, and the preservation of such accu- 
mulations becomes a matter of considerable impor- 
tance. 

Air must be excluded to preserve moist manure — 
With manure, as with all other perishable sub- 
stances, the first essential to preserA^ation is the ex- 
clusion of air. This, in the case of manure, is for 
two reasons : First, because the air is constantly 
laden with germs of the microscopic organisms 
which promote fermentation or decay ; and, second, 
because the presence of free oxygen is essential to 



T1I1£ rKESEKVATlUN OF MANURE 1 55 

the activity of those organisms which produce the 
destructive chang-es in the manure heap. What- 
ever w\\\ exclude the air, therefore, v^ill preserve the 
manure. 

The box stall method of manure preservation — 
The simplest method by w^hich this exclusion of air 
can be effected is that of trampling the manure un- 
der foot in cemented pits during accumulation, fol- 
lowing the method made familiar in the process of 
ensilage, and, where it is practicable to employ it, 
the old English box stall, the floor consisting of a 
shallow, cemented pit, the manger being so adjusted 
to be raised with the accumulation underfoot, is the 
ideal system of saving manure, as by this method 
the least possible handling is required, and handling 
is an important item in the cost of manure. 

This method, however, is not adapted to horses 
under any conditions, nor to dairy cows; as the 
manure of horses, if left without any further treat- 
ment, would evolve an amount of ammonia injurious 
to the eyes of the animals, and in large dairies the 
cost would be considered prohibitive, although with 
liberal use of bedding it is probable that this method 
would be found as cleanly as the ordinary stall with 
its daily removal of excrement and consequent re- 
newal of odor. 

In the case of fattening cattle or sheep, however, 
this method of preserving the manure is both the 
simplest and most effective possible. With horn- 
less cattle it involves no waste of space, since such 
cattle may be handled like sheep and will thrive 



156 FARM MANURES 

better when so handled than if tied up in separate 
stalls. The one important point is to provide abun- 
dant litter, of which cattle require a larger quantity 
than sheep, because of the greater proportion of 
water in the dung. 

The manure shed — For horses and dairy cows 
some other method of manure storage is necessary, 
and it is here that the manure shed comes into play. 
For the manure shed to serve its purpose, however, 
it must be so situated that stock can have access to 
it, and they must be encouraged to frequent it in 
order to trample the manure well ; for if this is not 
done the shed will only serve to waste the manure 
the more rapidly instead of preserving it. 

It will be found very difficult to preserve horse 
manure alone in any kind of shed, because of its 
great tendency to heat. This point is illustrated in 
the making of hotbeds, for which fresh horse manure 
is piled in loose heaps until active fermentation has 
begun, when it is placed in shallow pits, moder- 
ately packed by trampling, covered with earth and 
sheltered from excess of moisture. The fermentation 
continues for weeks with considerable evolution of 
heat. 

This tendency of horse manure to ferment may 
be held in check by mixing it with cow manure 
and packing it thoroughly, or by keeping it soaked 
with water. The manure shed, therefore, should be 
located so as to receive the mixed manure of both 
classes of animals, and should also be where its con- 
tents can be wet down when necessary. If a cistern 



THE PRESERVATION OF MANURE 



157 



is used to collect the urine, this should be pumped 
over the contents of the manure shed occasionally, 
both for the purpose of w^etting the latter and also 
to improve the effectiveness of both ; for the urine, 
as has previously been showm, carries a large quan- 
tity of nitrogen and potassium, but almost no phos- 
phorus ; but on most soils nitrogen and potassium 
produce comparatively little effect unless reinforced 
with phosphorus. 

For example, in the Pennsylvania experiments, 
in which corn, oats, wheat and clover are grown 
in rotation under different combinations of fertili- 
zing materials, a mixture carrying nitrogen in dried 
blood and potassium in the muriate has produced an 
average increase for each rotation, for the first 30 
years of the test, to the value of $1.98 at the valua- 
tions heretofore employed. When this mixture was 
reinforced with superphosphate the value of the in- 
crease rose to $20.91, although the same quantity 
of superphosphate, used alone, has produced but 
$8.88 in increase of crop. These results are tabu- 



Table XL. Effect of Combination in Fertilizers.* 





Value of increase a rotation 


Fertilizer 


Penna. 


Wooster 


Strongsville 




$ 1.98 

20.91 

8.88 


$11.08 • 
39.14 
16.53 


$ 4 62 


Potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus .... 
Phosphorus alone 


24.35 
17 39 







*For details of the Pennsylvania :est, see Bulletin No. 90 of Pennsylvania 
State College Experiment Station: for those of the Ohio tests see Bulletins 182, 
183 and 184 and 'Circular 120, of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. 



158 



FARM MANURES 



lated above, together with those of the Ohio sta- 
tion's five-year rotations, averaged for i8 years at 
Wooster and 17 years at Strongsville. 

Of course, the superior efifect of phosphorus in 
these tests is due to the fact that the soils under 
experiment are deficient in available phosphorus, a 
condition which is found in the majority of soils 
which have been long in cultivation, although there 
are occasional exceptions, as in the case of the Lex- 
ington soil of the Kentucky experiment station,* 
that of the Massachusetts experiment station at Am- 
herst,! and certain muck soils, § in which potassium 
seems to be the element most deficient. On sandy 
soils potassium appears to be more frequently 
needed than on clays. 

It may be asked, "Why build a manure shed if 
the manure must be kept wet under it?" The 
answer is that the manure shed gives us control of 
the moisture, enabling us to use a sufficient quantity to 
preserve the manure without causing leaching. 

It may be doubtful whether the manure shed will 
pay for itself simply as a shelter for manure; but 
those farmers who have built such sheds have usu- 
ally made them also serve the purpose of straw 
storage overhead, and of an exercise yard for stock 
in stormy weather. When these functions are judi- 
ciously combined there can be no question of the 
economy of the manure shed. 



* Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 61. 
t Hatch Experiment Station, Fifteenth Annual Report, p. 132. 
§ Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Illinois, Bulletin 93, 
and Purdue University Experiment Station, Bulletin 95. 



THE PRESERVATION OF MANURE 1 59 

The manure cellar — A substitute for the manure 
shed is the manure cellar. But such a cellar is not 
practicable on flat building sites, and it is generally 
open to the serious objection of keeping the ani- 
mals in a contaminated atmosphere and of being 
an unwholesome place to work in cleaning out. 
With the modern litter carrier a manure shed may 
be built adjoining, or even entirely separate from 
the barn, thus entirely removing the odor of its 
contents from the barn itself. It may be so arranged 
that the litter carrier may pass over a manure 
spreader, standing ready to receive its contents 
when practicable to take the manure at once to the 
field, as .shown by the illustration on page 153. 

The manure pit — Where horse manure must be 
kept alone, it is probable that the outdoor pit will 
be found the most satisfactory receptacle in which 
to preserve it. Such a pit should be deep enough 
to hold the annual rainfall, less evaporation and 
plus the amount of material that may be thrown 
into it, in order that there may be no leaching. The 
bottom and sides should be cemented, and it should 
be so arranged that a wagon can be driven through 
it, unless the quantity of manure is so small that it 
can be emptied from the side with not more than 
one extra handling. 

Horse manure thrown into such a pit would ordi- 
narily receive water enough from the rain to pre- 
vent fermentation, and would probably suffer less 
destructive losses than under any other practicable 
method of preservation. 



l6o FARM MANURES 

Such a pit is but a modification of the basin- 
shaped manure yard, which is in occasional use, 
but which is very seldom so constructed as to be 
absolutely secure from leaching on the one hand and 
overflow on the other. 

Manure preservatives — Many experiments have 
been made by European investigators, in the en- 
deavor to find some practicable method of arrest- 
ing the ammonia escaping from the manure heap, 
but while it has been shown that many finely pul- 
verized materials perform this function to a greater 
or less extent, the quantity required, or the difficulty 
of application, is usually so great as to counterbal- 
ance the saving accomplished. 

One of the most effective materials for this pur- 
pose is dry earth, and especially dry muck, which 
has the advantage not only of preventing some 
escape of ammonia, but also of reinforcing the ma- 
nure with nitrogen, and where this material is avail- 
able it might often be used with advantage. 

Sulphate of lime, commonly known as gypsum, or 
land plaster, has been used for this purpose for 
many years, being dusted over the manure heap and 
over the stable floors. This substance is probably 
partly decomposed by the manure, its sulphuric 
acid uniting with ammonia to form sulphate of am- 
monia, which is a comparatively stable salt. 

Dilute sulphuric acid would perhaps be one of the 
most effective of manure preservatives if it were 
practicable to use it, but it is too dangerous to 
handle, and, moreover, it would be injurious on 



THE PRESERVATION OF MANURE l6l 

some soils, because of increasing the tendency to 
soil acidity. 

Common salt is an excellent manure preservative, 
and those living near salt works are sometimes 
able to procure the refuse salt almost v^ithout cost. 
One of the properties of salt is that of conserving 
moisture, and this may partly explain its effect on 
the manure heap. 

The crude potash salt, kainit, which is a mixture 
of the chlorides of sodium and potassium with sul- 
phates of potassium and magnesium (common salt 
being chloride of sodium), is also a useful manure 
preservative, and would be a very suitable material 
to use on manure intended for soils deficient in 
potassium, or for such systems of cropping as cause 
heavy drafts upon the soil stores of potassium, such 
as market gardening. 

While there are a few soils that are relatively de- 
ficient in potassium, there are many more in which 
phosphorus is the limiting element, and for such 
soils such phosphatic materials as floats and acid 
phosphate, or even bone meal, would seem to be 
appropriate materials with which to treat manure. 
These materials, together with those previously 
mentioned, have been used by German and French 
investigators, chiefly in laboratory experiments, or 
in field tests extending over one or two seasons 
only, with considerable diversity in results. The 
general outcome of the work appears to have been 
that attention has been directed chiefly to the con- 
servation of ammonia, and it has been found that the 



1 62 FARM MANURES 

effect produced in this direction alone has seldom 
been sufficient to justify the expense of the treat- 
ment. It does not appear that there has been in 
Europe any systematic, long-continued study of the 
effect of manure treatment by experiments made 
under the natural conditions of the field, nor that, 
in either field or laboratory tests, the question of 
the better adaptation of the manure to the needs 
of particular soils or systems of cropping has been 
adequately studied. 

One of the most satisfactory of these European ex- 
periments was made by Maercker and Schneide- 
wind at Lauchstadt in 1896-97,* who made three 
experiments, two with cattle and one with sheep, 
fed in stalls about 2 feet deep and with cemented 
bottoms, the manure accumulating under foot, and 
parallel experiments on open and covered heaps of 
manure from animals receiving the same treatment, 
as to feed and bedding, as those in the deep stalls. 

The outcome of this work was that the loss of 
nitrogen from the deep stalls, when the manure was 
sampled immediately after the removal of the ani- 
mals, amounted to about 13 per cent of the total 
nitrogen ; but when the manure was allowed to lie 
in the stalls for four weeks during warm weather 
after the cattle were removed, the loss increased to 
35 per cent. 

In an ordinary uncovered heap the loss of nitro- 
gen was 37 per cent, and there was practically the 



*Landw. Jahresb. 72 (1898). abs. Experiment Record, 10 (1899). 



THE PRESERVATION OF MANURE I63 

same loss when the heap was covered. The weather 
conditions, however, were especially favorable to 
the uncovered manure, being wet and cloudy, while 
the covered manure became too dry. 

The addition of 30 per cent of marl to the manure 
reduced the loss of nitrogen to less than 10 per cent, 
and the addition of 30 per cent of marl and two per 
cent of peat reduced it to 6 per cent. The best re- 
sult, however, came from the addition of 6 per cent 
of sodium bisulphate, corresponding to 1.5 per cent 
of sulphuric acid, which reduced the loss to 1.3 per 
cent, thus keeping the manure practically un- 
changed. 

An experiment similar to the above was made 
by Prof. William Frear at the Pennsylvania experi- 
ment station in 1901,* in which manure, allowed to 
accumulate during two months (April and May) 
under animals in cement-lined stalls, was compared 
with manure removed daily and stored in a heap 
under a covered shed. The outcome was that the 
trampled manure suffered but little loss of fertili- 
zing constituents, while the covered shed manure 
lost one-third of its nitrogen, one-fifth of its potas- 
sium and one-seventh of its phosphorus. The loss of 
potassium and phosphorus is explained by seepage 
of the liquid manure into the clay floor of the stor- 
age shed, but the loss of nitrogen was chiefly due 
to the volatilization of carbonate of ammonia. The 
money value of the loss by the second method was 
computed at $2.50 for each steer stabled six months. 



* Pennsylvania State College Experiment Station, Bulletin 63. 



164 FARM MANURES 

Dr. Frear's final conclusion is that "manure, if 
prepared upon a tight floor and with such propor- 
tion of litter that it can be trampled into a com- 
pact mass, loses very little, if any, of its fertili- 
zing constituents so long as the animals remain upon 
it" — a conclusion which is in harmony with the gen- 
eral consensus of opinion of European investigators. 

Preservation of hen manure — The Maine experi- 
ment station* reports an experiment in the preserva- 
tion of hen manure in which one lot was stored in 
a barrel from May to November without any treat- 
ment, while other lots were mixed with kiln-dried 
sawdust, kainit, plaster and acid phosphate. The 
outcome of this test was that the untreated manure 
became moldy and lost more than half it3 nitrogen. 
The sawdust alone slightly improved the mechanical 
condition of the manure, but was of no service in 
conserving nitrogen. The manure stored with ap- 
proximately an equal weight of plaster lost about 
one-third of its nitrogen ; with nearly twice its 
weight of plaster there was no loss of nitrogen. 
The lots stored with kainit and acid phosphate re- 
tained practically all their nitrogen, even when these 
materials were used in but little more than half the 
weight of the manure. When these materials were 
used alone the manure was rather wet and sticky, 
but when they were used in connection with saw- 
dust the physical condition was more satisfactory. 



* Annual Report, 1903. 



• CHAPTER IX 
THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 

Manure not a complete fertilizer — It is ordinarily 
assumed that the fertility of the soil may be indefi- 
nitely maintained by a sufficient use of manure ; and 
while this is true for a limited area it is not the 
most economical way of maintaining fertility, for 
the animal necessarily withdraws from its food the 
elements required for the building of its tissues, and 
if it be a young animal, or a cow giving milk, the 
proportion of phosphorus and lime consumed will be 
much larger, relatively, than that of nitrogen or 
potassium. Hence the manure never carries back 
to the soil the full amount of any of the elements 
carried in the food, and in the case of growing ani- 
mals or milk producers the ratio of these elements 
to each other is very different in the manure from 
that found in the food. 

Fertility losses from permanent pastures — Take 
the case of a permanent pasture : Even when grazed 
by so perfect a manure producer as the sheep, it is 
evident that in the bones of the young stock grown 
upon it and sent to market there must be a steady 
drain of phosphorus and lime, which must ultimately 
become manifest in reduced production, and experi- 
ence has shown that the use of phosphatic fertilizers 
upon such pastures produces a marked increase in 
the production of grass. 

165 



1 66 FARM MANURES 

Fertility losses in grain production — Take the 
case of the grain farmer: A bushel of wheat carries 
about a fifth of a pound of phosphorus — a very small 
quantity it is true, and not a large quantity when 
multiplied by the average American yield of only 
about 14 bushels per acre — say three pounds of phos- 
phorus per acre ; but when the average annual addi- 
tion of four pounds of phosphorus per acre to land 
that has grown wheat along with other crops for 
three-quarters of a century, or to land that has been 
in pasture for a third of that time, after previous 
cropping, will increase the value of the yield by 30 
per cent, as it has done and is doing in the experi- 
ments of the Ohio station,* it means that the insig- 
nificant quantity of this element contained in the 
single bushel of wheat has become a very impor- 
tant matter within less than a century from the 
time when the soil was first brought under cultiva- 
tion. 

And when the addition of two pounds and a half 
of phosphorus to a ton of manure will add 20 per 
cent to its eft'ectiveness, over and above the increase 
produced by such materials as gypsum or kainit, 
as indicated by the experiments reported farther 
on. It shows that manure alone is not a complete fer- 
tilizer for soils exhausted by long-continued crop- 
ping. 

On soils deficient in lime the time will come, un- 
der ordinary management, when the supply of this 
constituent, as well as of phosphorus, will run short. 



*See Bulletin 182, p. 154 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 167 

for the oxides of phosphorus and calcium — phos- 
phoric acid and lime — are associated in the ratio 
of about 46 per' cent of the former to 54 per cent 
of the latter in bone ; hence there is a steady con- 
sumption of both in animal growth, so that manure 
alone will not maintain the lime supply, any more 
than it will that of phosphorus. 

The effect of supplementing manure with lime has 
been discussed on previous pages. The experiments 
now to be described throw some light upon the re- 
inforcement of manure with phosphates. 

Experiments in the reinforcement of manure — 
Field and laboratory experiments with manure have 
been conducted at the Ohio experiment station since 
1897, the object of which is to 'gain information re- 
garding the losses suffered by manure on exposure 
to the weather and also to test the effect of adding 
certain preservative or reinforcing materials to the 
manure. 

During the first years of these experiments five 
lots of cattle manure, of 1,000 pounds each, were 
taken in April from an open barnyard in which the 
manure had lain through the winter. One lot re- 
ceived no treatment, while with each of the other 
four 20 pounds, either of gypsum, kainit, acid phos- 
phate or finely pulverized phosphate rock, was thor- 
oughly mixed. 

At the same time five similar lots were taken 
from box stalls where the manure had been tram- 
pled under foot during accumulation, and similarly 
treated. For the first two seasons this manure was 




168 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 169 

produced by bulls, receiving a maintenance ration 
only, while the yard manure came from liberally 
fed dairy cows ; but since then it has been the prac- 
tice to have both yard and stall manure produced 
by fattening steers. 

After lying a few weeks the manure was spread 
upon the clover in a three-year rotation of corn, 
wheat and clover, the clover being shortly after- 
ward plowed under for the corn, the manure being 
applied at the rate of eight tons per acre. 

Because of the uncertainty as to the quantity of 
fresh manure required to produce a ton of yard 
manure under this system, the method of selecting 
the manure was changed in 1903, and since then all 
the manure for the experiment is taken from the 
stable in December or January and subjected to 
the different treatments, after which one-half of each 
of the differently treated lots is spread in its place 
in the field, while the other half is piled in a flat, 
compact heap in an open yard, where it remains 
until April, when it is spread in its place and the 
whole is plowed under. 

Three tracts of land are used in the experiment, 
in order that each crop may be grown every sea- 
son, the tracts being arranged as shown in the dia- 
gram. 

The corn is cut off in September and wheat is 
sown after it, clover being sown on the wheat the 
following spring. The results of this test, for the 
15 years ending with 191 1, are shown in Tables 
XLI and XLII. 



;i Kothingr 



^ Yard manure and gypsum 



Stall manure and gypsum 



2 Yard^ manure, untreated 



S Stall manure, untreated 



Nothing 



Chemical fertillier 



Chemical fertilizer 



S Nothing 



:i 


Nothing 




5 


Yard manure 


and gypsum 


« 


Stall manure 


and gypsum 


s 


Nothing 




w 


Yard manure 


, untreated 


55 


Stall manure 


untreated 


^ 


Nothing 




S 


CheraicaHertilizer | 


5 


Chemical fertilizer 


g 


Nothing 





s 


Nothing 


5 


Yard manure and gypsum 


s 


Stall manure and gypsum 


r" 


Noth.ng 


s 


Yard manure, untreated 


i" 


Stall manure, untreated 


^ 


Nothing 


s 


Chemical fertilizer 


CO 


Chemical fertilizer 


g" 


Nothing 



Nothinir 


„ 






Yard manure and floats 


t>c 




Stall manure and floats 


Ctf 




Nothing 


*. 




Yard manure and acid phos. 


Ol 




Stall manure and acid phos. 


&. 




Nothing 


^ 




Yard manure and kainit 


OC 




Stall manure and kainit 


cc 




Nothing 


£ 








.Nothing 


H. 




Yard manure and floats 


re 




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c: 




Nothing 






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OC 




Stall manure and kainit 


ec 




Nothing 


£ 














Diagram III of Arrangement of Plots and Plan of Fertilizing in Experi- 
ments WITH Manure at Ohio Experiment Station. 

170 



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17? 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 173 

In this experiment every third plot is left con- 
tinuously unmanured, and the manured plots are ar- 
ranged in pairs, as indicated in the table, with an 
unmanured plot on each side of each pair, the in- 
crease on the manured plots being computed by 
comparison with the two unmanured plots between 
which they lie. 

Superiority of stall manure over yard manure — 
Table XLI shows that in every case the average yield 
from the stall manure is decidedly greater than from 
the yard manure, excepting the wheat on the gyp- 
sum-treated plots. 

The table also shows that each of the materials 
used in treating the manure has added to its effec- 
tiveness, and that in this respect the phosphatic ma- 
terials have been more useful than the gypsum and 
kainit. These points are more clearly brought out 
in Table XLII, in which the relative value of the 
increase resulting from the variously treated ma- 
nures is shown. Table XLI shows that the yields 
on plots I and ii in this test have been larger than 
any other unfertilized yields except those of corn 
on plot 17. The details of the experiment show 
that these exaggerated yields are due chiefly to Sec- 
tion C. No sufficient explanation of this difference 
is found in the contour or other appearance of the 
land, and it is suspected that at some time the land 
covered by these plots which, it will be observed, 
stand end to end, may have been occupied by a 
fence row. Were we to calculate the increase on the 
basis of the general average of all the unfertilized 




174 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 



175 



plots, the results would be as shown in Table XLIII, 
which gives for' the average of the two kinds of 
manure the net value of increase per ton of manure 
as compared (A) with the adjoining unfertilized 
plots, or (B) with the general average of all the 
unfertilized plots. 



Table XLIII. Net Value of Increase a Ton of 
Manure as Compared (A) with Adjoining Un- 
fertilized Plots, or (B) with the General 
Average of All the Unfertilized Plots. 




Gypsum as a manure preservative — Gypsum has 
been used for a long time as a preservative of 
manure, and this experiment shows that it may be 
used with excellent effect, the gypsum-treated 
manure producing increase to the value of 49 cents 
per ton greater than the untreated, over and above 
the cost of treatment, in the case of yard manure, 
and 25 cents per ton greater in the case of stall 
manure, gypsum being rated at $6 per ton. 

Kainit as a manure preservative — Kainit has also 
been highly recommended for this purpose, and the 



176 FARM MANURES 

results of this experiment would have justified its 
use had not more effective materials been found. 
As compared with gypsum, the total increase from 
kainit has been greater, but the greater cost of kainit 
in Ohio, as compared with gypsum, has left the net 
gain practically the same, kainit being rated at $17 
a ton. In the case of both materials the freight is so 
important a factor in the cost, that it would in many 
cases determine which of the two materials should 
be used. 

On soils deficient in potassium kainit would serve 
to reinforce the manure in this element, and might 
be expected to produce a relatively greater increase 
than it has shown in this test; but here it seems 
that the chief effect of both the gypsum and kainit 
has been to arrest a part of the ammonia escaping 
from the fermenting manure, or to reduce the activ- 
ity of fermentation, and thus conserve the ammonia. 

Common salt as a manure preservative — Common 
salt has been found useful in reducing the ammonia- 
cal fermentation of the manure heap and at the same 
time promoting its decay, an effect possibly due in 
part to the hygroscopic character of salt, by which 
it promotes the absorption of moisture in the heap, 
thus preventing the excessive heat resulting from 
the uncontrolled action of the ammonia-producing 
organisms, and giving the nitric ferments opportu- 
nity to convert the ammonia into nitrates before its 
escape. 

Reinforcement of manure with crude phosphates 
— For an unknown period bones have been softened 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 1 7/ 

by mixing them, after pulverizing, with fermenting 
manure, and this fact suggested the use, in the ex- 
periment under consideration, of the crude phos- 
phate rock from which acid phosphate is made, and 
which is known as floats. This material, it will be 
observed, has added more than $i per ton to the 
net effectiveness of the manure, and the net increase 
per ton of manure for floats over gypsum has been 
more than half a dollar per ton of manure, floats 
being rated at $8 per ton, and gypsum at $5. In 
this case both the original cost and the freight affect 
the relative profit, but it will be seen that the net 
value of the increase from floats is greater, for both 
kinds of manure, than the total value of the in- 
crease from either gypsum or kainit. In other 
words, it has been more profitable to use floats at 
$8 per ton than to use gypsum or kainit, though 
they had cost nothing.* 

Reference to Table XLI shows that the total 
yields of corn and wheat have been greater from 
the manures treated with acid phosphate than from 
those treated with floats, while the hay yields have 
been a little smaller on the yard-manure plot after 
the acid phosphate than after the floats. These dif- 
ferences, however, have been so small that the final 
conclusion respecting the relative efficiency of the 



* The Dominion Experimental Farms have used " untreated mineral phos- 
phate" in the treatment of manure since 1888; but whereas the treated 
manure was used at the rate of six tons per acre annually, the untreated ma- 
nure was used at the rate of fifteen tons, thus leaving no opportunity for 
comparison of the effect of treated with untreated manure, nor of the effect of 
the manure on the phosphate ; for while the six tons of treated manure has 
produced nearly as great an increase as the 15 tons untreated, the latter quan- 
tity is so far in excess of the capacity of the crop to utilize its constituents 
that no comparison can be made. 




178 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE 1 79 

two reinforcing- materials rests upon whether the 
soil is assumed to be of uniform natural fertility, 
or whether we assume that there has been a pro- 
gressive decrease in natural fertility from plot i to 
plot 7, as is indicated by the yields of all the crops, 
the indication being that the yield has fallen ofif more 
abruptly between plots i and 4 than between plots 
4 and 7. 

The ordinary retail price of acid phosphate, 14 
percent grade, is $15 to $17 per ton, though it may 
be bought in carloads, freight paid, by those who are 
informed, at not exceeding one dollar per ton for 
each percent of phosphoric acid, or $14 per ton for 
the 14 percent grade. At this price the 40 pounds 
per ton of manure, or 320 pounds per acre, used in 
this experiment, would cost $2.24 per acre, thus 
leaving the net gain from the acid phosphate $32.97 
per acre, or $4.12 per ton of manure, for the yard 
manure, and $38.71 per acre, or $4.84 per ton, for 
the stall manure. 

The floats used in this test has analyzed about 27 
percent total "phosphoric acid,'' so that it has car- 
ried nearly twice as much phosphorus to the soil as 
the acid phosphate, and if reinforcement of the soil 
with phosphorus were the only effect of the treat- 
ment of manure, it would be expected that in time 
the floats-treated manure would begin to show a 
greater effect than that treated with acid phosphate. 
That time, however, has not yet arrived, as the combi- 
nation of manure with acid phosphate is still producing 
a larger yield than that treated with floats. This point 



i8o 



FARM MANURES 



is brought out by Table XLIV, in which the yields 
of corn and wheat are compared by six-year periods. 
It will be observed that the corn crop shows a 
diminished yield for the last period under every 
treatment except that of the fresh manure reinforced 
with floats and acid phosphate, but the wheat crop 
shows a large increase in yield for the last six-year 
period over the first in every case, and the rate of in- 
crease has been greater on the acid phosphate plots 
than on the floats plots for both kinds of manure 



Table XLIV. Comparison of Stall and Yard 
Manures, Variously Treated. First Six Years 
Compared with Last Six Years. Average Yield 
IN Bushels an Acre. 



Plot 
No. 






Yield an acre 


Gain (+) or 

loss (-) for 

second 6 years 


Crop and treatment 


First 
6 years 


Last 
6 years 


An acre 


Percent 




Com, unmanur 
" yard mar 


ed 


40.10 
54.98 
60.88 
58.99 
60.22 
61.46 
59.20 
63.50 
61.05 
62.68 
63.46 
8.51 
15.63 
21.90 
18.50 
22.39 
21.50 
17.59 
22.54 
20.99 
24.28 
23.37 


27.63 
47.36 
55.08 
50.26 
58.61 
59.08 
57.11 
57.83 
59.08 
63.94 
65.29 
14.31 
24.03 
26.94 
24.59 
28.83 
30.94 
25.10 
25.59 
25.66 
29.72 
30.18 


-12.47 

- 7.62 

- 5.80 

- 8.73 

- 1.61 

- 1.38 

- 2.09 

- 5.67 

- 1.97 
+ 1.26 
+ 1.83 
+ 5.80 
4- 8.40 
-1- 5.04 
+ 6.09 
+ 6.44 
4- 9.44 
+ 7.51 
+ 3.05 
4- 4.67 
+ 5.44 
+ 6.81 


30 


15 


lure, untreated 


—14 


12 
8 
2 
5 

16 


Wheat, unmani 


and gypsum 

" kainit 

" floats 

* " acid phosphate 
' untreated 


- 9 

-IS 

- 3 

- 2 
_ 3 


13 
9 
3 


and gypsum 

' " kainit 

' " floats 


- 9 

- 3 

+ 2 
+ 3 
+68 
+54 
+23 
+3i 
+28 
+44 
+42 
+13 
+22 
+22 
+28 


6 


' " acid phosphate 
ired. . 


IS 


yard ma 

;; stall. 




12 
8 
2 


and gypsum 

" kainit 

' " floats 


5 
16 


" acid phosphate 
' untreated 


13 
9 
3 


and gypsum 

" kainit 

" floats 


6 


' " acid phosphate 



THE REINFORCEMENT OF MANURE l8l 

The land upon which this experiment is being 
conducted has, been reduced to a very low state of 
fertility by many years of exhaustive farming, and 
while it shows a great lack of phosphorus, by its 
ready response to phosphatic fertilizers, yet it is equally 
hungry for nitrogen. 

To illustrate : In the experiments with fertilizers, 
conducted on the same farm, the i8-year average 
unfertilized yield of wheat grown in rotation with 
other crops has been 10.72 bushels; where phos- 
phorus has been given the yield has risen to 18.69 
bushels; where potassium has been added to the 
phosphorus there has been a further increase to 
19.91 bushels, and where nitrogen has been added 
to the combination of phosphorus and potassium 
the average yield has risen to 27.13 bushels. 

This hunger of the soil for both phosphorus and 
nitrogen explains the fact that the acid phosphate 
has been more effective when used in combination 
with manure than when used alone; for whereas 
the quantity used with manure has increased the 
annual value of the total yield by $5.24 per acre 
over that given by the untreated manure, yet when 
the same quantity of acid phosphate has been used 
alone in the five-year rotation on the same farm its 
increase has amounted in value to only $3 annually. 
Each material has supplemented and reinforced the 
other, the phosphate supplying the element in which 
the manure was deficient, and the manure furnish- 
ing the nitrogen and potassium required to utilize 
the full effect of the phosphate. 



CHAPTER X 
METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE 

Effect on manure of drying — A generation ago it 
was the general practice, in handling manure, to 
haul it from the barnyard to the field when conveni- 
ent, pile it there in small heaps, 15 to 20 feet apart, 
and leave it in these heaps until the time came to 
plow the land, when the manure was scattered just 
ahead of the plow and turned under as quickly as 
possible ; the idea being that the drying of the manure 
would cause a large part of its virtue to be lost. 

Few farmers of that day knew that the pungent, 
invisible gas escaping from the manure heap was, 
in fact, its most valuable constituent. The great 
n\ajority did not know that this gas was constantly 
being formed, so long as the manure lay in moist 
heaps, and was as constantly passing from the 
heaps into the air; they did not know that the dry- 
ing of the manure took away only water, leaving 
all the actual plant food behind, and that, in fact, the 
complete removal of the water would leave the manure 
in better condition for preservation than before. 

We now know that the decomposition of manure 
can only take place in the presence of moisture; 
that if we can withdraw all moisture, the residue 
will preserve all its fertilizing qualities indefinitely, 
and that when the moisture is evaporated from the 

182 



METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE 183 

manure heap it carries with it none of these ferti- 
lizing qualities, but goes into the atmosphere sim- 
ply as watery vapor. 

Everybody knows that when brine is evaporated 
all the salt is left behind, and this is equally true of 
manure water. There are two ways, and only two, 
in which manure loses its value; these are leach- 
ing and the heating which accompanies chemical 
action. When the manure is heaped in the field 
both these agencies of loss begin their action. The 
rain falls upon the heap and washes its more solu- 
ble, and, therefore, more valuable, constituents into 
the ground immediately under and around the heap, 
and chemical, or more properly, bacterial action be- 
gins in the heap, liberating its nitrogen and convert- 
ing its phosphorus and potassium into more soluble 
forms, to be washed out by the next shower. 

Of all the ways in which manure is handled, 
therefore, this old way of piling it in small heaps 
in the field is the most wasteful. It is worse than 
leaving it under the barn eaves and letting it leach 
out there, because of the waste of labor involved in 
hauling a lot of material to the field to be there 
thrown away, and because the excess of fertilizing 
material washed into the soil under the manure 
heaps is an actual injury to the soil, if the heaps be 
allowed to lie for any length of time. The over- 
growth of lodged and half-filled grain over such 
spots ought to be sufficient to convince any observ- 
ing man of the mistake of such a method, and yet 
there are thousands of farmers who still follow it. 



184 FARM MANURES 

Value of the liquid manure — If we would but stop 
and reflect that fully half the potential fertilizing 
value of the manure, as it is voided by the animal, 
is found in the salts dissolved in the liquid portion ; 
that the full effect of neither the solid nor the liquid 
portion can be realized except when used in connec- 
tion with the other; that when the liquid is per- 
mitted to flow away, in stable or yard, or when it is 
displaced by rain and separated from the solid por- 
tion, whether in yard or field, it carries with it 
these fertilizing salts; but that when it is merely 
evaporated they are left behind and still combined 
with those of the solid portion, it would be easy to 
realize that the only right way to handle manure is 
to collect the liquid by abundant absorbents, get it 
promptly to the field where its effect is wanted, 
spread it there at once and as perfectly as possible, 
and then let sunshine and rain do their work. The 
sunshine will evaporate the water, and that only, 
and the rain which follows will redissolve the salts 
and wash them into all the soil, where they are needed, 
and not simply into little spots here and there. 

The manure spreader — When we come to under- 
stand the nature and value of manure, the need of 
thorough distribution becomes apparent. When it 
is spread with the fork there will inevitably be 
lumps here and bare spots there, thus losing part 
of the possible effect in one spot from excess and 
in another by deficiency. It is true that the dis- 
tribution of manure with a fork may be very much 
improved by following with a smoothing harrow, 



METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE 185 

but even with this extra labor the work cannot be 
so well done as with a manure spreader. 

Another great advantage in the manure spreader 
is that it is always ready for its special purpose, and 
therefore, the manure is much more likely to be 
drawn promptly to the field than if a wagon, used 
chiefly for other purposes, must be gotten ready for 
this job every time a lot of manure is to be moved. 

Not only is manure distributed more perfectly by 
the spreader than by hand, but the work is done 
more cheaply. With the steadily increasing cost of 
labor it becomes constantly more important to de- 
vise means for substituting the labor of horses for 
that of men, and with the spreader a team will un- 
load a ton of manure in a small fraction of the time 
that would be required to do it by hand. 

Considering the convenience, the perfection and 
the economy of its work, the manure spreader 
should be ranked next to the automatic harvester in 
importance as a farm implement. 

Spreading manure in winter — Many farmers fear 
that if they spread manure on frozen ground, espe- 
cially on hillsides, it will be in danger of being 
washed away by the spring freshets; but clay is a 
powerful absorbent, and the rain which would carry 
away the fertilizing salts of the manure would very 
soon thaw the surface of the soil so that it would 
extract these salts from the water flowing over it. 

Admitting that there may be occasional small 
losses from this source, such losses are unquestion- 
ably insignificant as compared with those which 



1 86 FARM MANURES 

occur in the average barnyard, or in the small 
manure heaps in the field. 

Fresh vs. rotted manure — It has been commonly 
assumed that the effectiveness of manure is in- 
creased by rotting, and old books on agriculture, 
and especially on gardening, abound in advice to use 
only "well-rotted" manure, and in methods to bring 
it to this condition. The investigations which have 
been described in the previous pages show that the 
ton of rotted manure may sometimes contain as 
many pounds of fertilizing constituents as the ton 
of fresh manure, and so long as these investigations 
did not go into the question of the loss of fertilizing 
constituents suffered by manure in rotting, and of 
the comparative aA^ailability of the constituents in 
the two kinds of manure, it was easy to imagine 
that rotted manure might be more valuable than 
fresh manure. Prof. F. T. Shutt, of the Domin- 
ion Experimental Farms, says, on this point: 

"The advantages gained by rotting may be 
enumerated briefly as follows : The manure becomes 
disintegrated and of uniform character throughout, 
allowing an easier and more uniform distribution in 
the field and a more intimate mixing with the soil ; 
the coarse litter is decomposed and its plant food 
thus made more available; compounds are formed 
from the organic matter that more readily produce 
humus within the soil ; the availability of the nitrogen 
of the solid portion of the manure is increased; the 
phosphates are made more assimilable ; there is less 



METHODS OF APPfA'TXC MANURE 15/ 

weight of manure to haul to the fields ; the large num- 
ber of weed seeds that may be present are destroyed." 

After thus stating the advantages of rotted 
manure Professor Shutt says : 

"It has also been seen, on the other hand, that 
even under a good system of preservation, rotting 
must be accompanied by loss of fertilizing constitu- 
ents. Weight for weight, rotted manure is more 
valuable than fresh manure, containing a larger per- 
centage of plant food and having these elements 
in a more available condition, but the losses in 
rotting may, and frequently do, outbalance the bene- 
fits. Undoubtedly the safest storehouse for manure 
is in the soil. Once in the soil, the only loss that 
can occur is through draining away of the soluble 
nitrates, and this is usually very slight, indeed it is 
not to be compared with the loss of nitrogen in the 
fermenting manure heap. We, therefore, unhesi- 
tatingly say that the farmer who gets his manure 
while still fresh into the soil returns to it for the 
future use of his crops much more plant nourishment 
than he who allows the manure to accumulate in 
piles that receive little or no care, and which, there- 
fore, must waste by excessive fermentation or leach- 
ing, or both."* 

Whether the constituents of rotted manure are 
really more valuable, pound for pound, than those 
of fresh manure, however, has been shown by the 
work of Mr. Ames, of the Ohio station, quoted on 
page 147, to be dependent upon whether the rotting 

* Central Experimental Farm Bulletin 31, pp. 23, 27. 



1 88 FARM MANURES 

has been conducted under such conditions as to 
avoid all loss of the more readily soluble portions, 
either by leaching or by seepage, so that under the 
conditions which usually attend the rotting of manure 
it not only loses in total quantity of plant food, but in 
the relative value of that which is left. 

As a study of the comparative value of the two 
kinds of manure, an experiment was begun at the 
Dominion Experimental Farm at Ottawa in 1888, in 
which wheat, barley, oats, ensilage corn, mangels 
and turnips are grown continuously on land cleared 
from the forest for the purposes of the experiment, 
and in which one plot (No. 2) has received annually 
15 tons per acre of a mixture of equal parts of fresh 
manure and cow manure, and another plot (No. i) 
has received the same quantity of "well-rotted" 
manure from the same classes of animals. 

This experiment was continued without change 
for 10 years; the manuring was then discontinued 
until 1905, in order to study the residual effect of 
the manures. The application of the manures was 
resumed in 1905. Table XLV shows the average 
yield per acre for the entire period of experiment, as 
computed from the annual reports of the director. 

These experiments show practically no difference 
in the effectiveness of the two kinds of manure, ton 
for ton, the only decided advantage indicated for the 
fresh manure being that it has required more than 
two tons of fresh manure to produce one ton of 
rotted manure — a difference abundantly sufficient to 
justify the use of fresh manure. 



METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE 



189 



Table XLV. Comparison of Fresh and Rotted 
Manure at the Dominion Experimental Farm. 



Average yield an acre 



No 
manure 



Rotted 
manure 



Fresh 
manure 



Wheat, bushels . 

Barley, " 

Oats, 

Silage com, tons 

Turnips, " 

Mangels, *' 



11.24 

15.13 

35.39 

6.33 

7.50 

8.21 



22.53 
37.12 
52.48 
14.92 
15.70 
22.18 



22.77 
37.07 
56.11 
14.22 
15.73 
21.21 



But 15 tons of manure, applied every year, would 
carry such large quantities of fertilizing elements 
that there would have to be a very great difference 
in effectiveness if the crops were to show it. Tak- 
ing the analyses of similar manures made by Pro- 
fessor Shutt in 1898 (see page 144), we find that 
15 tons of the fresh manure would have carried 180 
pounds of nitrogen, 56 pounds of available phos- 
phoric acid and 200 pounds of available potash, or 
as much of each of these available constituents as 
would be contained in 90 bushels of wheat with its 
straw, or 26 tons of mangels. Of course, the total 
available plant food is never completely utilized by 
the crop, but the differences between the quantities 
supplied in the manure in this instance and those 
recovered in the increase of crop are so great as to 
show that the weight of crop was limited, not by the 
plant food supplied in the manure, but by seasonal, 
physical or physiological conditions. 



CHAPTER XI 
WHERE TO USE MANURE 

Manuring corn — While all the crops ordinarily 
grown on the farm may be benefited by judicious 
applications of manure, there are some to which 
it is better adapted than to others, and which, there- 
fore, should have the preference if there is not a 
sufficient supply for all, and of these corn easily 
stands first. 

Of all the crops grown in the Temperate Zone none 
is capable of producing as much food to the acre 
as Indian corn. A crop of 80 bushels of corn to the 
acre is more easily attained than one of 40 bushels 
of wheat, and while the stover which produces this 
quantity of corn will weigh but little more than 
the straw carrying half as much wheat, yet it is 
practicable to convert a very much larger propor- 
tion of the stover into meat or milk than of the 
wheat straw, so that the corn crop will yield at least 
twice as much potential food to the acre as wheat. 

If we compare corn with potatoes we would need 
to raise more than 500 bushels of potatoes to the 
acre to produce as much digestible dry material as 
is yielded by the grain alone of an 80-bushel corn 
crop, but the comparative rate of production of the 
two crops under the ordinary circumstances is less 
than three bushels of potatoes to one of corn. 

190 



WHERE TO USE MANURE I9T 

The average rate of production of the different 
crops in Ohio, as shown by the statistics collected 
by the township assessors for the ten years, 1890- 
99, was as follows : 

Corn, 33-68 bushels an acre 

Wheat, 14.60 " " " 

Oats, 29.34 '^ " " 

Potatoes, 75.25 " " " 

On an average, about 60 pounds of stover is re- 
quired to carry a bushel of corn; about iio pounds 
of straw to the bushel of wheat, and about 70 
pounds to the bushel of oats. 

This supremacy of corn as a food producer is 
due to its ability to secure and utilize immense 
quantities of soil nitrogen. Making its growth, as 
it does, during the summer months, when nitrifica- 
tion is most active, and under conditions of culture 
which favor the action of the nitrifying organisms, 
it has greater opportunity to obtain this element 
than those crops which make most of their growth 
during the cooler months. 

Further than this, the corn plant is so constituted 
that it will reach its greatest perfection in a soil 
so rich in nitrogen that the small grains would lodge 
on it before reaching maturity, and, therefore, corn 
will thrive under doses of manure that would be 
fatal to wheat or oats. 

Another reason for giving the corn crop the pref- 
erence in the distribution of manure is that this 
crop is ready for the manure early in the spring, 



192 FARM MANURES 

thus making it possible to avoid the waste which 
usually follows the keeping of manure through the 
summer. Moreover, corn is usually grown on sod 
land, on which the manure may be spread at any 
time during the fall or winter, if the land is reason- 
ably level. Many farmers are now following this 
method, and they find that the manure spread dur- 
ing the fall or early winter produces larger crops 
than that spread later. 

Of course, manures spread on steep hillsides may 
lose somewhat by leaching, but it is probable that 
the loss which occurs in this way is insignificant, as 
compared with that which takes place in the 
ordinary farmyard; for clay has a powerful affinity 
for manure, and a thin sheet of manure water flow- 
ing down a hillside will lose most of its manurial 
salts before it reaches the bottom. 

Potatoes are also a spring crop which is usually 
grown on sod land, and while they produce less 
actual nutriment to the acre than corn, the average 
market value per acre of the potato crop is con- 
siderably greater than that of the corn crop, hence 
it is a very general and rational practice to deal 
liberally with this crop in the distribution of 
manure. In fact, it is a principle of general applica- 
tion that the higher the acre-value of a crop the 
more profitably it will respond to manuring or fer- 
tilizing; for this reason all crops known as truck 
crops may well receive first attention in the matter 
of manuring. 

The oats crop is seldom directly manured, both 



WHERE TO USE MANURE I93 

because it is a crop of low acre-value, and because 
it is so easily lodged by excess of nitrogen in the 
soil. 

Manuring wheat — In former days it was the gen- 
eral custom to leave the manure in the barnyard 
until after harvest, and then apply it to the land 
intended for the wheat. So long as the idea pre- 
vailed that manure must not be permitted to be- 
come dry it was the custom to deposit it in small 
piles in the field, these piles to be spread in ad- 
vance of the plow, being careful not to get too far 
ahead of the plowing; and the writer, who has 
witnessed every step in the progress of agriculture, 
from that of reaping and threshing the wheat with 
such implements as Farmer Boaz may have used, 
to the enormous steam harvester of today, cutting 
a swath of 20 feet or more in width and threshing 
and sacking the grain as it goes, has spent many 
hours in scattering manure in this fashion. 

But as the sickle gave place to the reaper, and the 
bonds of tradition, which had led the farmer in the 
footsteps of his father since man first learned to till 
the ground, began to weaken, it was discovered that 
the drying of manure was not so wasteful a process 
as had been imagined, and the practice of plowing 
the land first and then top dressing it with manure 
came into vogue, the farmer finding that this prac- 
tice possessed the double advantage of permitting 
the plowing to be done earlier, thus securing the 
benefit of a short summer fallow, and of keeping the 
coarser portion of the manure on the surface, to 



194 FARM MANURES 

serve as a partial protection to the growing- wheat 
during the winter and a stimulus to the clover and 
grass seeds during the early spring. 

Later on commercial fertilizers came into use, 
and these have proved so convenient and effective 
for improving the wheat crop that top dressing is 
much less practiced than formerly, and more of the 
manure goes to the corn crop. This disposal of the 
manure is an improvement on the former method, 
but unfortunately it has followed a large decrease in 
the number of live stock kept, so that much less 
manure is being produced in proportion to the area 
under cultivation than was a quarter of a century 
ago. 

In the Ohio station's experiments corn, which has 
received eight tons of manure per acre, has given 
an ii-year average yield of 58 bushels per acre, an 
increase of 23 bushels over the yield of the un- 
manured land alongside, and the wheat which has 
followed this corn without any further manuring 
or fertilizing has yielded 19.7 bushels, an increase of 
9.9 bushels over the unmanured yield; whereas, 
when the wheat land has been top-dressed with the 
same quantity of manure just before seeding, the 
manure having lain in the barnyard until drawn out 
for this purpose, the increase in yield has averaged 
but I I.I bushels, or only one and one-fifth bushel 
more than that given by the wheat which has eaten 
at the second table after the corn. 

In other words, while this manure zvas lying in the 
barnyard zvaiting for the zvheat it might have grozvn 



WHERE TO USE MANURE I95 

more than 20 bushels of corn without materially im- 
pairing its value for zvheat production! 

Taking no account of the fact that much more 
than a ton of manure has to be thrown into the 
barnyard in the winter for every ton taken out in 
August, it seems evident that the proper way to 
handle the winter's accumulation of manure is to 
put it, as promptly as possible, upon the spring 
crops. Many farmers have learned this lesson, and 
the practice is steadily increasing, although there 
are still far too many who follow the old, wasteful 
methods. 

The grass crops, both meadows and pastures, re- 
spond promptly to manuring. A familiar illustra- 
tion of this point may be seen in meadows, the after- 
math of which has been pastured the previous fall, 
in the superior growth around the animal droppings. 
It is easy to see that a liberal dressing of manure 
would have doubled the yield of many such a 
meadow. 

In one of the experiments of the Ohio experiment 
station, clover and timothy occupy the land for two 
years, after corn, oats and wheat have been grown 
in succession. In this test one plot receives every 
five years a dressing of 1,060 pounds of chemical 
fertilizers, distributed over the three cereal crops, 
while another receives during the same period 16 
tons of open-yard manure, divided between the corn 
and the wheat. The result has been an 18-year 
average increase in the cereal crops to the value of 
$29.72 per acre for each rotation, for the chemical 



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196 



WHERE TO USE MANURE I97 

fertilizers, as against a value of $25.56 from the same 
crops for the manure ; but the clover and timothy 
have given a residual increase following the chem- 
icals to the value of $9.50 per acre, as against a 
value of $14.04 for the same grass crops following 
the manured cereals. This relatively greater effect 
of manure on the grass crops has been partly due to 
the grass seeds carried in the manure, as shown by 
the thicker stand, especially of timothy, shown on 
the manured plots ; but this is only an additional rea- 
son for using manure on meadows and pastures 
whenever practicable, for here its grass seeds give 
it additional value, whereas they are a disadvantage 
on the cultivated crops. 

It is true that manure may carry weed seeds to 
the meadows and pastures as well as the more de- 
sirable grass seeds; but if the system of farming 
has been such as to avoid the production of weeds, 
this will not be a serious objection. 

Meadows and pastures may be manured at times 
when it is not practicable to manure cultivated 
lands, and hence the system of farm management 
should contemplate the regular division of the 
manure produced between the lands in grass and 
those under cultivation. 

Manuring the orchard — Another part of the farm 
which is too often overlooked in the distribution of 
manure is the orchard. It is probable that the seeds 
carried in a full crop of apples contain as large a 
quantity of the essential elements of fertility as an 
ordinary crop of corn or wheat, and the conditions 



195 FARM MANURES 

of cropping in the orchard are similar to those of 
continuous culture on the same land. It is true 
that the fruit tree sends its roots deeper into the 
soil than the cereals, and thus has a larger foraging 
ground, but there can be no reasonable doubt that 
starvation is one of the prime causes of irregular 
crops and frequent failures in the orchard. 

Orchardists are learning that conservation of 
moisture is another essential to successful fruit pro- 
duction, and the mulch system is making many con- 
verts ; but a coarse, strawy manure is not only an 
ideal mulch, but a conveyer of needed soil enrich- 
ment as well. In using it for this purpose it should 
be kept well out under the ends of the branches, as 
it is there that the feeding roots are most active. 

The only time in the year when manure is unac- 
ceptable to the orchard is the brief period during 
which the fruit is being gathered, and even then it 
might be spread and covered with straw, an opera- 
tion which would involve no waste of labor, since 
more mulching material can be used to advantage 
than would be carried in a moderate dressing of 
manure. 



CHAPTER XII 
GREEN MANURES 

Green manures are crops which are grown to be 
turned under for the purpose of enriching the land. 
The process of green manuring serves three prin- 
cipal functions: (i) The improvement of the physi- 
cal texture of the soil by incorporating with it the 
fibrous roots of the manure crops, which separate 
the soil particles, permitting a more ready access 
of air and moisture ; (2) the bringing up from lower 
depths and storing near the surface of fertilizing 
elements; and (3) the addition of nitrogen to the 
soil. 

Two principal methods are employed in green 
manuring: First, the production and turning under 
of crops which require one or more season's growth, 
and, second, the sowing of so-called "catch" or 
"cover" crops after corn or potatoes, which occupy 
the ground only during the winter and are turned 
under the next spring. 

The first method has been in use for many years, 
in the plowing under of clover, a practice which 
was more common half a century ago than at pres- 
ent. There can be no doubt that by this practice 
the fertility of the superficial soil may be greatly 
improved, both by the bringing up from the subsoil 
of mineral plant food and storing it in the surface, 



2(X) FARM MANURES 

and by actual addition of nitrogen obtained from 
the air by leguminous crops. There is no doubt, 
moreover, that the improvement thus effected may 
be much greater than if the roots and stubble only 
are plowed under. According to average analyses, a 
yield of two tons of red clover hay should contain 
the following constituents : 

Nitrogen, 79 pounds 

Phosphorus, 10 " 

Potassium, 62 " 

If these constituents were purchased in nitrate of 
soda, acid phosphate and muriate of potash, their 
cost would be, at present market prices, freight paid 
to interior points, approximately as shown below : 

WEIGHTS AND VALUES OF ELEMENTS 



Nitrate of soda. 


525 pounds at $55 a ton, 


$14.43 


Acid phosphate 






(14%), 


114 '' " 14" " 


.80 


Muriate of potash. 


152 " " 46" " 


3-50 



Total, $18.73 

or $9-37 per ton for the hay. This value, how- 
ever, would not be realized, under ordinary circum- 
stances, by merely plowing under the clover, for 
experience has shown that on most soils phosphorus 
is needed in much larger proportion to nitrogen 
than it is found in the clover hay, which is relatively 
deficient in this element, as compared with wheat 
and corn, as shown below in the analysis of yields 
practically equivalent to two tons of clover hay : 



GREEN MANURES 



20 1 



WEIGHT OF ELEMjENTS IN EQUIVALENT CROPS ( POUNDS) 





Corn 








50 bushels 


Wheat 






with cobs 


25 bushels 


Clover 


Elements 


and stover 


with straw 


2 tons 


Nitrogen, 


72 


42 


86 


Phosphorus, 


8 


7 


■ 7 


Potassium, 


40 


28 


45 



That is : 50 bushels of corn, with its cobs and 
stover, will carry a little more phosphorus and a 
little less nitrogen and potassium than two tons of 
clover hay, but 25 bushels of wheat with its straw, 
carrying the same quantity of phosphorus as two 
tons of hay, will contain only about half as much 
nitrogen and potassium as the hay. For the nitro- 
gen and potassium of a clover crop to be efficiently 
used as a green manu»re for wheat, therefore, they 
must be reinforced with phosphorus. 

If the hay be fed to live stock and the manure 
saved and returned to the land, there will, it is true, 
be some loss of fertilizing constituents, but under 
careful management it should be possible to recover 
in the manure three-fourths or more of the fertili- 
zing value of the hay, after realizing its full market 
value as a feed. The question, therefore, for the 
individual farmer to decide will be, whether the 
additional value to be r-ealized by feeding the clover 
will offset the cost of making it into hay, storing and 
feeding the hay and returning the manure to the 
field. 



202 FARM MANURES 

Other crops for green manuring — If a crop is to 
be grown expressly to be turned under as a green 
manure, the medium red clover is not the one that 
should be selected, under ordinary conditions. The 
mammoth clover will make a ranker growth and is 
hardier than the medium clover, and should be used 
for this purpose in preference; its treatment, as to 
seeding, being the same as for the medium red. 

The soy bean and cowpea are both well adapted 
to this purpose, the soy bean for the region north 
of the Ohio river, and the cowpea for the territory 
south of that river. These are hot weather plants, 
and should not be planted until the ground is thor- 
oughly warm, a little later than corn is usually 
planted. When grown for this purpose they may be 
sown with the ordinary grain drill, with all the runs 
open, using about a bushel and a half of seed to the 
acre. Both plants are killed by the first sharp frost, 
but they grow rapidly and under favorable condi- 
tions will produce as heavy a weight of crop as the 
clovers. They are especially adapted to serve as 
substitutes for clover, where the latter has failed 
from any cause. In more northerly latitudes the 
Canada pea might be used for the same purpose, but 
it should be sown early in the spring and plowed 
under in midsummer. 

Either of these plants may be grown as a prepara- 
tion for wheat. If the Canada pea is grown, it may 
be plowed under long enough before the wheat is 
sown to give time for compacting the soil ; if the soy 
bean or cowpea is selected, the better way to man- 



GREEN MANURES 203 

age is to^ cut the crop into the surface with a disk 
harrow, instead of plowing it under, thus keeping 
the fertility which it has accumulated near the sur- 
face, where it is most needed, both by the wheat and 
by the clover following. 

Sweet or Bokhara clover— One of the most valua- 
ble plants for soil improvement is sweet clover, 
Melilotus alba. This plant thrives throughout the 
entire range of climate from Michigan to Missis- 
sippi, and its one soil requirement is that there shall 
be an abundance of lime. Its special mission ap- 
pears to be to occupy the waste places of the earth, 
and to prepare the way for other crops. When once 
introduced in a region where the soil is well sup- 
plied with lime, it speedily occupies the roadsides 
where the surface soil has been removed or where 
it has been puddled by the trampling of animals. 
An abandoned brickyard is to melilot what a clover 
sod is to corn, and in such a place it sends its roots 
deep mto the hard clay and makes luxuriant growth. 
A striking peculiarity of the melilot is the fact 
that, under ordinary circumstances, it does not be- 
come a weed, in the sense of invading cultivated land 
or meadows and pastures. In California the com- 
plamt is made that it does become a weed in the 
alfalfa fields, and it is sometimes found growing 
with alfalfa in the East. In fact, the two plants are 
so closely related, botanically, that one who is not 
an expert may easily mistake one for the other dur- 
ing the earlier stages of growth ; moreover the same 
root-nodule organisms are common to both plants, 



204 



FARM MANURES 



SO that soil upon which melilot has grown serves to 
inoculate alfalfa with these organisms. At the 
Rothamsted experiment station, melilot, alfalfa and 
vetch were grown continuously on the same ground 
for a period of 12 to 14 years, beginning with 1878. 
Table XLVI shows the annual and accumulated 
yields of nitrogen secured in the crops harvested 
from these plants. 

Table XLVI. Melilotus, Alfalfa and Vetch 
Grown Continuously at Rothamsted. 





Estimated annual and cumulative yield of nitrogen in pounds 
an acre 


Year 


Melilotus 


Alfalfa 


Vetch 




Season 


Total 


Season 


Total 


Season 


Total 


1878 


53 
130 
36 
60 
145 
27 
56 
58 

'82 
32 
23 


53 
183 
219 
279 
424 
451 
507 
565 
565 
647 
679 
702 


"28 
28 
111 
143 
337 
270 
167 
247 
161 
153 
124 
147 


"28 

56 

167 

310 

647 

917 

1084 

1331 

1492 

1645 

1769 

1916 


51 

46 

58 

65 

146 

101 

113 

90 

52 

64 

60 

65 

61 

79 


51 


1879 


97 


1880 


155 


1881 


220 


1882. . . 


366 


1883 


467 


1884 


580 


1885 


670 


1886 


722 


1887 


786 


1888 


846 


1889 


911 


1890 


972 


1891 


1051 







The table shows that at the end of the third sea- 
son the melilot had secured a total of 219 pounds of 
nitrogen, as against 155 for vetch and 28 for alfalfa. 
By the sixth season the vetch had passed the meli- 
lot, and the seventh season the alfalfa passed both 



GREEN MANURES 20$ 

the others, and from that time kept the lead, the total 
accumulation of nitrogen in 14 years amounting to 
1,916 pounds for alfalfa, as against 1,051 pounds for 
vetch and 702 pounds for melilot. 

This is but one experiment, and on different soils 
or under other conditions a different outcome might 
be reached; but the fact that the vetch and melilot 
are annual or biennial in habit of growth, thus re- 
quiring a frequent reseeding, v^hile alfalfa is peren- 
nial, increasing in root growth for several years, 
makes it probable that this test gives a fair index 
to the comparative values of these plants, and that 
for immediate results in soil improvement alone, 
and as a preparation for other crops, the melilot is 
decidedly the plant to choose ; whereas, if the primary 
object be the production of a large quantity of for- 
age, with ultimate soil improvement as a secondary 
consideration, the choice would fall upon the other 
plants — alfalfa for conditions permitting a continu- 
ous occupation of the land by the same crop, and 
vetch for use in short rotations with other crops. 

Seeding to melilot and alfalfa — Notwithstanding 
the readiness with which melilot spreads along the 
roadsides and waste places, many failures have re- 
sulted from attempts to cultivate it. Like alfalfa, 
melilot must have an abundance of lime. As already 
suggested, the only plant with which melilot appears 
to be willing to associate is alfalfa, and this point 
suggests, further, that the methods of seeding which 
succeed best with alfalfa are likely to be equally 
adapted to melilot. 



206 FARM MANURES 

Whether the melilot's apparent preference for 
soils which are inhospitable to other plants is an 
actual preference, or whether it merely signifies that 
the young melilot cannot endure crowding, is an 
undetermined question. The facts that it will 
grow luxuriantly on good land, if the land be kept 
clear of other plants, and that the slow growth of 
the young alfalfa plants gives the melilot a chance 
to get ahead, would seem to lend support to the lat- 
ter view. 

In the case of alfalfa, experiments have shown 
that the chance of securing a successful stand is 
much improved by preparing the land early in the 
spring and then spending a few weeks in encoura- 
ging the weed seeds near the surface to germinate, so 
that the plants they produce may be destroyed with the 
harrow before the alfalfa is sown, and it is highly 
probable that a similar method would be equally 
successful with melilot. Such a method has an ad- 
ditional theoretical support, in the fact that it brings 
the date of seeding to the time when the plant seeds 
itself under natural conditions. 

Buckwheat as a green manure — Another plant 
frequently grown in earlier days as a green manure 
is buckwheat; but, with a wider knowledge of the 
function of leguminous plants in the capture of at- 
mospheric nitrogen, the use of buckwheat for this 
purpose has become less common. 

In experiments by the Ontario Agricultural Col- 
lege, reported in the circular of the Experimentalist 
for 1907, land on which field peas were used as a 



GREEN MANURES 2.0'J 

green manure yielded 6j/^ bushels of wheat per acre 
more than land on which buckwheat was so used, 
in the average of eight separate tests. 

Catch crops — The conservation of fertility by 
catch crops depends upon the fact that the process 
of nitrification, by which the nitrogen of the decay- 
ing organic matter in the soil is converted into forms 
available to cultivated plants, is in constant opera- 
tion whenever the temperature of the soil is above 
the freezing point. The result of this process is the 
formation of nitric acid, which may at once be ab- 
sorbed by the roots of growing crops, or may be 
temporarily stored in combination with an alkali, 
such as lime, in the form of a neutral salt. Soda 
and potash serve the same purpose as lime where 
they are sufficiently abundant, and nitrate of soda 
and nitrate of potash are familiar examples of this 
combination. In humid climates, however, these 
alkalies have usually been leached from the soil 
to such an extent that not enough is left for this 
purpose, and lime is, consequently, the chief depend- 
ence. Nitrate of lime, however, like the nitrates of 
soda and potash, is a soluble salt, simply serving as 
temporary storage, and if the ground be not occu- 
pied by growing plants this nitrogen store will be 
dissolved out and carried away by the late fall and 
early spring rains. 

The corn crop is grown under conditions espe- 
cially favorable to the formation of nitrates. It 
makes its growth during the hottest months, when 
nitrification is most active, and the occasional stir- 



268 FARM MANURES 

ring of the soil by cultivation re-distributes the nitri- 
fying organisms and favors their work by loosen- 
ing the soil so that air can penetrate more readily. 

But the growth of the corn crop is stopped by the 
first frost, if not earlier, after which there are sev- 
eral weeks during which nitrification still continues, 
while the bare ground left by the corn is in just the 
condition to facilitate leaching, so that in time there 
must be considerable waste of nitrogen from corn- 
stubble land which is left bare through the winter. 

The practice of following corn with winter wheat, 
which is quite generally followed in some sections, 
especially south of the latitude in which oats reaches 
its highest development, is supported by the fact 
that the wheat makes its start just at the opportune 
time for utilizing the nitrate residue left by the corn 
crop. 

Whether such a rotation or a longer one is better 
depends largely upon the relative adaptability of the 
soil to different crops; upon the conditions of the 
local market, and upon the special preferences of 
the farmer. Where these conditions make it pref- 
erable to follow the corn with some other crop than 
wheat or other winter grain, it becomes desirable to 
sow a temporary crop in the corn at the last work- 
ing, or on the stubble immediately after the corn is 
harvested, to save the nitrate aftermath which would 
otherwise be wasted. 

Rye as a catch crop — A crop frequently used for 
this purpose is rye, which may be sown in the stand- 
ing corn during August, or if the corn has been 



GREEN MANURES 209 

blown down so that it is impracticable to cover in 
the seed, the sowing may be delayed until the corn 
comes off, with a reasonable assurance of having a 
late fall and early spring growth which will serve 
the purpose in view even more perfectly than would 
be done by a wheat crop, because of the hardier 
nature and more vigorous growth of the rye. 

A rye catch crop of this kind may be pastured 
when the ground is dry enough not to be injured by 
the trampling of stock, and in most seasons it may 
be made to yield enough in this way to pay for the 
cost of seed and labor, aside from the economy re- 
sulting from the saving of nitrates. 

In an experiment of this kind, the pasturage of the 
rye crop, grown during the winter between two 
crops of corn, amounted to a value of $5 per acre, 
while the second corn crop was better than the first, 
the rye having filled the soil with a mass of fibrous roots 
which materially improved its physical condition, 
in addition to serving as a reservoir of available 
plant food, ready to be yielded to the growing crop 
as needed. 

A later experiment on the same land, however, 
had quite a dififerent result. In this case the rye was 
permitted to grow until time to plant corn, by which 
time it had headed out or nearly so, when it was 
turned under. Dry weather followed, and the corn 
following the rye was almost a total failure, an out- 
come due to the exhaustion of the water supply in 
the soil by the rye crop, leaving the corn to depend 
solely upon the summer rains for its supply. 



2IO FARM MANURES 

It requires more than an average summer rainfall 
to furnish enough water for a good corn crop under 
ordinary conditions; but if the soil is pumped dry 
before the corn is planted the crop must inevitably 
suffer, unless the succeeding rainfall is greater than 
usual. 

Had this last rye crop been turned under early 
in the spring and the ground left fallow for three 
or four weeks before planting the corn, giving it an 
occasional harrowing to fill up the crevices, com- 
pact the seed bed and destroy all germinating weed 
seeds, it is probable that the result would have been 
even more favorable than in the first instance. 

"Souring" the land with green manures — It is 
probable that experiences similar to the above have 
given rise to the idea that the turning under of a 
heavy crop of green material may "sour" the soil. 
Such a green crop might amount to ten to fifteen 
tons to the acre, or less than such an application of 
manure as many farmers apply; it probably would 
not decompose in the soil any more rapidly than 
would manure, nor give rise to products containing 
any greater acidity. It would seem, therefore, that 
the occasional unfavorable effect observed from the 
turning under of green manures should be ascribed 
to previous exhaustion of the water supply, and not 
to any excessive production of deleterious acids. 

The crop which is grown for a green manure fills 
the soil with a mass of fibrous roots which separate 
the soil particles and cause it to crumble when 
plowed. If the plowing be followed by dry weather 



GREEN MANURES 211 

and the ground be left without harrowmg for a few 
days, the exhaustion of water supply caused by the 
growth of the plant will be completed by the evapo- 
ration of the small amount left in the soil, for the 
water contained in the crop which is turned under 
is as but a drop in the bucket as compared to the 
quantity required for crop growth, a point which 
will be realized at once when it is remembered that 
if the crop were mown and left upon the surface 
the greater part of its water would disappear dur- 
ing a day's sunshine, showing that a similar quan- 
tity of water has been transpired daily by its foliage 
during growth. 

The rye crop adds nothing to the soil. It merely 
catches some of the soil nitrates that would other- 
wise be wasted, combines them with phosphorus 
and potassium already in the soil, and holds them 
to be given back again to succeeding crops. To 
accomplish this function perfectly the rye should 
have at hand a supply of quickly available phos- 
phorus and potassium, otherwise it will not be able 
to capture the nitrates as fast as they are formed, 
hence the greatest effectiveness of this crop, or of 
any other green manure, will only be attained when 
it is reinforced with a light dressing of mineral 
fertilizers. 

Catch crops should be fertilized — The catch crop, 
whatever it may be, is supposed to follow cultivated 
crops — corn, cotton, potatoes, tobacco or beets — 
which have grown through the summer under the 
stimulus of cultivation, and have largely exhausted 



212 FARM MANURES 

the immediately available supply of the mineral ele- 
ments of fertility. This point is strikingly brought 
out when turnips or rape are used as catch crops. 
If these crops are to be of any service, the land 
must either be in good heart to start with, or else 
they must be well fertilized. 

Turnips and rape, like rye, will furnish excellent 
pasture in the fall, but in northern latitudes they 
will be killed down by the winter, and, therefore, will 
give no spring pastures. Like rye, these crops add 
nothing to the soil, merely working over and storing 
near the surface the plant food already there. These 
crops are more sensitive than rye to poverty of soil, 
and, therefore, it is useless to try to grow them ex- 
cept on rich land; but on such land they may be 
made to materially increase the income. 

Leguminous catch crops — A crop which would 
not merely work over the old material in the soil, 
but would add new material as well, would be the 
ideal one for this purpose. In the southern states 
it has become a quite common practice to sow cow- 
peas in the corn, much as rye is grown in the North. 
Crimson clover has been successfully used in this 
way in the territory lying between the domains of 
King Cotton and King Corn, but it has not proved 
reliable in the corn belt proper. 

The winter, or hairy, vetch comes nearer serving 
the purpose for this region, but there are two seri- 
ous objections to it in the facts that the seed is 
expensive and the growth is so slow at the start 



GREEN MANURES 213 

that there is not a satisfactory quantity to turn un- 
der if the plowing is done early in the spring. 

Vetch and rye may be sown together, using a 
bushel of each. Such a combination makes an ex- 
cellent crop to turn under, or to cut green for soil- 
ing; while if it is desired to grow the vetch for 
seed, this is the best way to handle it, the rye sup- 
porting the vetch and both maturing together. 

Soy beans and rye — Another combination which 
might be employed would be soy beans and rye, the 
beans to be sown in the corn at the last working, at 
the end of July or early in August, and then to be 
cut into the surface with a disk harrow, after the 
corn is taken off, and rye, or rye and vetch, sown 
to occupy the land through the winter. The cost of 
such a treatment would be considerable at present 
prices of vetch and soy bean seed. Whether it 
would be the most economical way of increasing 
fertility would depend upon the cost of manuring, 
or of fertilizing with chemicals, and this point ap- 
plies to all forms of green manuring. 

Experiments by the Illinois station — A compre- 
hensive series of experiments in the use of catch 
crops and green manures has been inaugurated by 
Dr. C. G. Hopkins, agronomist and chemist of the 
experiment station of the University of Illinois, 
which will soon furnish a basis for more exact 
knowledge than we now possess. 

In Bulletin 115 of that station is reported an ex- 
periment which is being conducted on worn land 
near Vienna, Johnson County, in the southern part 



214 FARM MANURES 

of the state, the soil being a yellowish-red silt loam, 
commonly known as the red clay hill soil of south- 
ern Illinois. It is quite deficient in nitrogen, some- 
what poor in phosphorus, but well supplied with 
potassium. As a rule the soil is too acid to grow 
clover successfully. The land on which the experi- 
ment is located has been cropped for about 75 years, 
with little or no manuring or fertilizing. The field 
is divided into three series of five fifth-acre plots, 
and is cropped in a three-year rotation. During the 
first four years the rotation was corn, cowpeas and 
wheat, after which it was changed to corn, wheat 
and clover. The soil treatment has been as follows : 

Plot I of each series, no treatment, except as the 
cowpea stubble or the second growth of clover has 
been plowed under in the regular course of the rota- 
tion. 

Plot 2, legume catrh crops plowed under. 

Plot 3, legumes plowed under and lime applied. 

Plot 4, legumes, with lime and phosphorus. 

The legume treatment consists of plowing under 
legume catch crops grown after the wheat and in 
the corn after the last cultivation. The first three 
crops of cowpeas in the regular rotation were also 
plowed under, one crop in each series on all the 
plots except the untreated check plot. No. i. Since 
that time the regular cowpea crops have been har- 
vested and removed from all the plots. 

The primary object in applying lime is to correct 
soil acidity. In the spring of 1902 one ton of slaked 
lime per acre was applied, but it having been found 



GREEN MANURES 



215 



that the sub-surface and sub-soil were more acid 
than the surface, the acidity increasing with the 
depth, an additional application of eight tons per 
acre of ground limestone was made in the fall of 
1902. It is believed, however, that two to four tons 
per acre as an initial application might have given 
satisfactory results. 

Once in three years 600 pounds per acre of 
steamed bone meal and 300 pounds of potassium 
sulphate is applied, carrying about 75 pounds of 
phosphorus and 120 pounds of potassium, or 25 
pounds of phosphorus and 40 pounds of potassium 
per annum. 

Oats were grown instead of wheat in 1902 ; since 
then four crops of wheat have been grown, while 
five crops each of corn and cowpeas have been 
grown. Taking the last three years, after the effect 
of the lime had been manifest, the effects of this 

Table XLVIL Effect of Legume-Lime Treat- 
ment ON Southern Illinois Soil. 





Treatment 


Annual yield and increase 
(Bushels) 


an acre 




Wheat 


Corn 




Yield 


Increase 


Yield 


Increase 


1 




3.9 

7.8 
15.4 
17.2 

20.8 


3.9 
11.5 
13.3 

16.9 


36.4 
39.7 
53.3 
49.2 

47.4 




2 




3.3 


3 




16.9 


4 
5 


Legume, lime, phosphorus . . . 
Legume, lime, phosphorus, po- 
tassium • 


12.8 
11.0 









2l6 FARM MANURES 

treatment on the wheat and corn have been as 
shown in Table XLVII. 

The table shows that the legume treatment has 
doubled the yield of wheat, and that the combina- 
tion of legumes with lime has quadrupled it. This 
combination, apparently, has been all that was re- 
quired to produce the maximum yield of corn, the 
addition of phosphorus and potassium, while in- 
creasing the yield of wheat, producing no further 
increase in that of corn (the slight falling off in the 
corn yield on plots 4 and 5 is probably due to the 
inequalities of the soil, rather than to the effect of 
the fertilizers). 

It is evident that lime has been a most important 
factor in producing increase of crop on this soil, but 
probably the increase in the wheat and corn on the 
limed land is chiefly due to the indirect effect of the 
lime in increasing the growth of the legume crops. 

Increase of soil nitrogen by leguminous crops — 
The following experiment, planned to show the in- 
crease of soil nitrogen from the growth of legumes, 
was made by Prof. Frank T. Shutt of the Domin- 
ion Experimental Farms. 

A plot of 16 feet by 4 feet was staked off and the 
sides protected by boards sunk to the depth of 8 
inches. The surface soil to this depth was then 
removed and in its place a strictly homogeneous 
but very poor sandy loam substituted — the nitrogen 
content of which was .0439 per cent. This was 
dressed with a mixture of superphosphate, used at 



GREEN MANURES 



217 



the rate of 400 pounds per acre, and muriate of pot- 
ash, at the rate of 200 pounds. 

It was then sown with red clover, May 13, 1902. 
During each succeeding season the growth has been 
cut twice, and the material allowed to decay on the 
soil. At the end of every second season the crop has 
been turned under, the soil being stirred to a depth 
of approximately 4 inches, and the plot resown the 
following spring. Four samplings and analyses of 
this soil have been made since the experiment 
began, as shown in Table XLVIII ; and each suc- 
cessive sampling has shown a marked increase in 
nitrogen — an increase which would seem to be very 
satisfactory for such an open, sandy soil. 

Table XLVIII. Nitrogen Enrichment of Soils 
Due to the Growth of Clover. 





Date of 
collection 


Nitrogen 




Percentage in 
water-free soil 


Pounds an acre 

to a depth of 

4 inches 




May 13, '02 
" 14, '04 
" 15, '06 
" 30, '07 


.0437 
.0580 
.0608 
.0689 

.0252 


533 


After 2 years 


708 




742 


" 5 " 


841 


Increase of nitrogen due to 
5 years' growth clover. . 


308 



In two years this soil was enriched in nitrogen to the 
amount of 175 pounds per acre; in five years, despite 
losses, the land is richer by 308 pounds per acre.* 

* " Science," Aug. 30, 1907. 



CHAPTER XIII 

PLANNING THE FARM MANAGEMENT FOR 
FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 

Maintenance of fertility a complex problem — The 

experiments quoted in the previous pages would 
seem to furnish indubitable evidence that the suc- 
cessful solution of the problem of the maintenance 
of soil fertility rests upon the suppl5^ in suitable 
proportions, of compounds carrying three or four 
chemical elements, to a soil v^hich is maintained 
in such physical condition as to afford these ele- 
ments, together v^ith the organisms by v^hich they 
are converted into available form, the most favor- 
able environment for their reactions on each other 
and on other elements in the. soil. In other words, 
the maintenance of fertility is a physico-chemico- 
vital problem, and these classes of agencies must all 
be considered in the planning of a permanent sys- 
tem of agriculture. 

Manure alone not a balanced ration for plants — 
The practical experience of farmers, gathered 
through the ages since man first began to till the 
soil, has demonstrated that it is possible to main- 
tain and increase the productiveness of the soil 
by a liberal use of animal manure. The average 
yield of wheat in England is more than 30 bushels 
per acre, and it has been brought up to within a 

218 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 219 

few bushels of this point within 200 years from an 
average of about 12 bushels, by the use of manure 
alone; for while chemical fertilizers are now used 
extensively in that country, the average yield of 
wheat had reached 25 bushels or more before the 
use of such fertilizers began. 

This result, however, has been accomplished 
through a lavish and wasteful use of manure, the 
drain of phosphorus from the land having been met 
by the use of manure in such quantity that much 
of its nitrogen and potassium was wasted in order 
to provide a sufficient quantity of phosphorus, the 
supply of manure having been kept up by the pur- 
chase of foreign-grown feeding stufifs. 

There are many American farmers who say that 
they cannot produce enough manure to keep up the 
fertility of their soils. Strictly speaking, it is true 
that no farmer should depend upon manure alone 
for this purpose, but as a rule the farmers who 
make this assertion are neither producing as much 
manure as they might produce to advantage, nor 
using what they do produce in such a way as to 
secure its full effect. 

Data now available on production and value of 
manure — The many careful experiments in feeding 
for meat or for milk which have been made by vari- 
ous experiment stations during recent years enable 
us now to form a close estimate of the direct effect 
which may be expected from a judicious combina- 
tion of feeding stuffs, fed to selected animals, and 
the investigations reported on the preceding pages 



220 FARM MANURES 

furnish data upon which we may base a similar 
estimate of the secondary recovery which may be 
secured in our feeding operations in the form of 
manure; these investigations giving not only prac- 
tical information relative to the quantity of manure 
which may be produced under given conditions, but 
also showing the effectiveness of that manure for 
crop production, as compared with fertilizers which 
have a commercial value. 

Systematic planning of farm management now 
possible — It is, therefore, now practicable to plan a 
system of management under which the farmer may 
calculate in advance, more closely than has ever be- 
fore been possible, the probable outcome of his 
operations. 

In planning such a system of management the 
points which require first consideration are the spe- 
cial choice and aptitude of the farmer himself; the 
character of his soil and climate ; his market facil- 
ities and other environmental conditions. 

The farmer may have a free choice — The first 
point is of prime importance. A man may succeed 
in a business which is more or less distasteful to 
him, because of general business ability, but the 
chances are that greater skill in management will 
be developed in a business in which one takes more 
than a perfunctory interest. This is especially true 
of the different branches of agriculture. The man 
who does not take delight in the management of 
domestic animals of some sort will not handle them 
as successfully as the one who does, and this is true, 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 221 

not only of live stock as a whole, but also of each 
class of animals. Some men prefer horses, others 
cattle, others sheep, hogs, or poultry, and for- 
tunately there is room and opportunity for each to 
have his choice, and the conditions throughout the 
United States are now such that the man who makes 
a thorough study of the nature of these classes of 
animals and of the special conditions prevailing in 
the various sections, can profitably handle some one, 
if not all of them, in practically any locality in the 
humid regions, and over much of the arid area. 

Some possible systems of farm management — Let 
us now compare a few possible systems of farm 
management, and for the purpose of this study let 
us take a farm of i6o acres, practically all tillable, 
well drained, with sufficient buildings for ordinary grain 
farming, but one from which the surface fertility has 
been skimmed by half a century or more of exhaustive 
cropping. Many farms may be found throughout 
the upper Mississippi Valley answering the above 
description in all points except the drainage, and 
occasionally this point will have been fairly well pro- 
vided for, either by the natural drainage of underly- 
ing gravels or stratified rocks, or by artificial drains. 

Let us assume that a farm of this character can be 
purchased for $10,000, or rented at six per cent on 
this valuation. Probably some farms of this char- 
acter could be bought for less money, but many 
others, especially if well located with reference to 
market, are held at a much higher value. 

To properly carry on the work on such a farm 



222 FARM MANURES 

would involve an investment in teams and imple- 
ments of at least $2,000. If the farmer is able-bod- 
ied he may perform most of the work with the help 
of one man for eight months, and the equivalent of 
two months' additional help in harvest. At present 
rates of wages the cost of this help, including board, 
would amount to at least $300 per year. 

To the interest on investment it would be neces- 
sary to add an estimate for maintenance of teams 
and implements. The average working life of a 
horse probably does not exceed 10 years, which 
means that an allowance of 10 per cent annually 
must be made on the investment in teams to cover 
depreciation in value. Under most conditions the 
teams must be shod at least part of the time. The 
cost of keeping a horse shod the year round will 
average $10 or more. Implements wear out, so that 
15 per cent of the original value would not more 
than cover the cost of maintaining the inventory 
of teams and implements. Including all these items, 
and including taxes in the items of interest and 
maintenance of inventory, the cost of conducting 
such a farm as that under consideration, exclusive 
of the labor of the owner or tenant, would be ap- 
proximately as below : 

COST OF FARMING l6o ACRES 

Interest or rental on land, 160 acres, $600 

Maintenance of inventory, at 15 per cent, 300 
Wages and board of help, 350 

Total, $1,250 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 223 

Of the i6o acres we will allow lo acres for wood- 
land and waste, five acres for pasture and building 
lots, and lo acres for production of crops for sup- 
port of teams, leaving 135 acres to be cropped for 
commercial purposes. 

Since 1894 the Ohio experiment station has con- 
ducted experiments with fertilizers and manures on 
a farm answering the above description, and while 
this work has been done on plots containing only 
one-tenth of an acre each, yet one who has inspected 
the work and observed the regularity with which 
similar treatment has produced similar results, on 
widely separated plots, cannot doubt that it would 
be possible to reproduce on larger areas the results 
which have been obtained on these small plots. 

Table XLIX. Eighteen-Year Average Yield of 
Unfertilized Land in Five- Year Rotation. 



Crop 


Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
or hay 
Pounds 


Com . . . 


29.7 
30.8 
10.7 


1 668 


Oats 


1,287 


Wheat 

Clover hay 


1,093 
1,921 
2,698 







Farming without fertilizers or manure — In one of 
these experiments, the five-3^ear rotation previously 
mentioned, corn, oats and wheat have been grown in 
succession, followed by two years in clover and 
timothy, five tracts of land of three acres each being 



224 FARM MANURES 

included in the test, so that each crop has been 
grown every season. Each tract contains 30 plots, 
and every third plot has been left continuously un- 
treated, thus giving 50 unfertilized plots. The aver- 
age yield of these plots for the 18 years, 1894-1911, 
is shown in Table XLIX. 

At the prices heretofore employed in such com- 
putations the above produce would be worth $53 
per acre for each rotation, or $10.60 per acre annu- 
ally, amounting to a total for our farm of $1,430, 
from which, deducting the cost of production, as 
computed above, $1,250, a balance of $180 would 
be left. 

Let us assume now that our farmer is a renter, who 
feels that he cannot afford to purchase fertilizers to 
be used on another man's land, and that this par- 
ticular farm has been occupied by renters of similar 
mind for a quarter of a century, as had apparently 
been the case with the farm on which the experi- 
ment we are now considering is being conducted. 
On this assumption it will be seen that the tenant's 
net income will be about half that of the man whom 
he hires by the month, for the farmer must work 
twelve months in the year, instead of only eight or 
ten. 

If the farmer be so fortunate as to own the farm 
and to be free from debt, his income will be increased 
by the amount above allowed for interest or rental ; 
and if he has the further good fortune to have a 
rugged boy or two, so that he will not have to hire 
help outside his family, he may make a fairly com- 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 



22: 



fortable living; otherwise he will find it necessary 
to move off the farm to avoid starvation. 

Effect of addition of phosphorus — The soil on 
which the experiment under review is being con- 
ducted is hungry for phosphorus, as are most soils 
that have been under cultivation for many years, 
and the application of 320 pounds of acid phosphate 
per acre for each rotation — 80 pounds each on corn 
and oats and 160 pounds on wheat — has increased 
the average yields by the amounts shown in 
Table L. 

Table L. Eighteen-Year Average Increase from 
Acid Phosphate. 



Crop 


Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
or hay- 
Pounds 


Com. . 


7.48 
8.54 
7.95 


208 


Oats 


356 


Wheat 


740 




534 




265 







This increase would have an average annual value 
of $3.30 per acre, or a total value of $445 for the 
farm under consideration, which, added to the 
value of the unfertilized yield, amounts to a total 
of $1,875. At $15 per ton the acid phosphate would 
cost $65 ; adding this to the cost of production, we 
have a total of $1,315, which leaves a net balance 
of $560 — more than three times the net earnings of 
the farmer who will not fertilize. 



226 



FARM MANURES 



Effect of addition of potassium — When potassium 
has been added to the phosphate, in the form of 
muriate of potash, applied at the rate of 80 pounds 
per acre each to the corn and oats and 100 pounds to 
the wheat, and increasing the cost of the fertihzer to 
$8.90 for each rotation, or $1.78 per annum, there 
has been the further increase in yield shown in 
Table LI. 

Table LI. Eighteen-Year Average Increase in 
Yield from Acid Phosphate and Muriate of 
Potash. 



Crop 


Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
Pounds 


Com 


14.22 
12.03 
9.03 


554 


Oats 


582 


Wheat 


779 




970 




473 







The value of this increase would be $4.90 per 
acre annually, or a total sum of $660 for the farm, 
which added to the value of the unfertilized yield 
would amount to $2,090. The cost of the fer- 
tilizer would be $240, which would increase the cost 
of production to $1,490, and would leave a net bal- 
ance of $600, or $40 more than that resulting from 
the use of acid phosphate alone. 

Farming with complete chemical fertilizer — 
When a complete fertilizer has been used, contain- 
ing the quantities of acid phosphate and muriate of 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 



22'^ 



potash above given, reinforced with 480 pounds of 
nitrate of soda, 160 pounds on each of the cereal 
crops, the average increase has been raised to the 
quantities shown in Table LII. 

Table LII. Eighteen-Year Average Increase in 
Yield from Complete Fertilizers. 



Crop 


Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
or hay 
Pounds 


Com .... 


18.46 
18.40 
16.25 


688 


Oats 


928 


Wheat. . 


1,791 




1,408 


Timothy hay. . . . 


966 







The total value here amounts to $4.93 per acre 
annually, or to $1,056 for the farm, increasing 
the value of the total produce to $2,486. The 
nitrate of soda, however, has raised the cost of the 
fertilizer to a total for the farm of $594, thus increas- 
ing the cost of production to $1,844, and leaving a 
net balance of $642, or $82 more than that recovered 
from the acid phosphate alone. 

There is reason to believe that the potassium salt 
has been used in this experiment in larger quantity 
than necessary. At the two southern test farms of 
the station, experiments were begun in 1904 in which 
corn, wheat and clover are grown in a three-year 
rotation, acid phosphate being applied at the rate 
of 120 pounds per acre to the corn and wheat on 
plot 2, and the same quantity of acid phosphate, re- 



228 



FARM MANURES 



inforced with 20 pounds of muriate of potash, on 
plot 3, while plot 8 has received the same applica- 
tion as plot 3, together with 160 pounds of nitrate 
of soda, 80 pounds each on corn and wheat. 

In Table LIII the results of these tests are com- 
pared with those attained at the main station on the 
basis of the average annual value of increase. 



Table LIII. Effect of Reducing the Proportion 
OF Potassium in the Fertilizer. 





Annual value of increase 


Treatment 


Wooster=!= 


Germantownt 


Carpenter! 


Acid phosphate alone 

Acid phosphate and muriate 

of pDtash 

Compleie fertilizer 


$3.31 

4.90 
7.L3 


$3.29 

4.65 
5.60 


$2.43 

3.68 
5.35 







* 18-year average; t'^-year average. 

In the experiment at Wooster there has been a 
marked gain in the rate of increase with the prog- 
ress of the work, the increase for the second five 
years being nearly twice as great as for the first 
five years, and that for the third five 3^ears greater 
than for the second. Whether this accelerated rate 
of gain is in part due to the liberal fertilizing of the 
earlier years, and whether a similar acceleration will 
be experienced at the southern farms remains for 
future results to determine. At present, however, 
the gain at the southern farms is greater than it was 
at Wooster during the earlier years of the test. 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 229 

It may be questioned whether nitrogen also has 
not been given in excess. A direct answer to this 
question is given by the experiments at Wooster, in 
which one plot (No. 17) receives only half the 
nitrate of soda given to the one heretofore con- 
sidered (No. 11), but receives 480 pounds acid phos- 
phate instead of 320, The average annual value of 
the increase on these plots and the cost of the fer- 
tilizer for the 18 years are as below : 

VALUE OF INCREASE IN EIGHTEEN YEARS 

Plot II Plot 17 
Average value of increase an acre, $7.83 $6.98 

Cost of fertilizers an acre, 4.40 3.33 



Net gain, $3.43 $3.65 

This comparison shows that the total yield has 
been considerably greater from the larger applica- 
tion of nitrate, but the net gain has been slightly 
greater from the smaller application. It seems 
probable, therefore, that the net gain may be in- 
creased, for a considerable period at least, by reduc- 
ing the proportions of nitrogen and potassium in 
the fertilizer. 

Fertilizer nitrogen too costly — But fertilizer nitro- 
gen is a very expensive commodity. At current 
prices a pound of phosphorus may be purchased 
at retail in its most effective carrier, acid phosphate, 
for about 11 cents; and a pound of potassium in the 
muriate, at 6 1-3 cents, while a pound of nitrogen, 



230 FARM MANURES 

in nitrate of soda, costs about 18 cents, freight paid to 
interior points in each case. It is true that a pound 
of nitrogen may be purchased in tankage for a little 
less money, but it is also true that such nitrogen is 
less valuable, because less promptly available, than 
that of nitrate of soda. In the ordinary mixed fer- 
tilizer, however, with its fancy name, the pound 
of nitrogen, though usually derived from tankage, 
or muck, is sold to the farmer at a much higher price 
than he would pay for it in nitrate of soda, so that 
in using nitrate of soda in these experiments nitro- 
gen has been applied in the cheapest, as well as the 
most effective carriers. 

Of the total $594, which the fertilizer on plot 11 
would cost, if applied at the same rate on the farm 
under consideration, $353 would be paid for nitro- 
gen, $175 for potassium and $65 for phosphorus. If 
this expenditure for nitrogen and potassium could 
be avoided, without reduction in yield of crops, it 
would add very materially to the farmer's income. 
And this may be done. 

Maintaining fertility with clover only — In an- 
other experiment on the same farm with the one 
we have been considering, corn, wheat and clover 
have been grown since 1897 in a three-year rota- 
tion. In this case also each crop is grown every 
season, and one-third of the land is left continuously 
without any other amelioration than that which it 
gets from the clover. The yield on this untreated 
land has averaged as shown in Table LIV, for the 
15 years, 1897-1911 : 



planning for fertility maintenance 23 1 

Table LIV. Fifteen-Year Average Yield of Un- 
treated Land in Corn-Wheat-Clover Rotation. 



Grain 
Bushels 



Stover, straw 
or hay- 
Pounds 



Corn (14 crops). . 
Wheat (14 crops) . 
Hay (11 crops). . . 



34.44 
11.16 



2,155 
1,323 

2,435 



The value of this yield, using our previous scale 
of prices, would be $37 per acre for each rotation, 
or $12.33 P^'' annum, as against an annual value of 
$10.60 for the unfertilized yield in the five-year rota- 
tion. 

Applying these results to our 160-acre farm, v^e 
w^ould have a total annual value of produce amount- 
ing to $1,665, from v^hich, deducting the cost of 
production, $1,250, there v^ould be left to the farmer 
a net balance of $415, or $235 more than that result- 
ing from the practice of the longer rotation, but this 
balance is still too low to give living wages to the 
man who manages the farm. It is true that in both 
cases the clover hay has been removed from the land 
and only the roots turned under. What might have 
occurred if the whole plant had been plowed under 
we can only guess at, as there are as yet no reported 
experiments on this point which have been con- 
tinued a sufificient length of time to furnish definite 
information on this point. 

A ton of average clover hay contains about 43 
pounds of nitrogen, seven pounds of phosphorus and 



232 



FARM MANURES 



23 pounds of potassium, or nitrogen, worth $6.45, 
phosphorus worth 75 cents and potassium worth 
$1.40, a total of $8.60, which is a larger value than 
has been given to the hay as a feeding stuff in the 
computations on the preceding pages, saying noth- 
ing of the additional cost of harvesting and market- 
ing the hay. To realize this value, however, it 
would be necessary to reinforce the clover with 
phosphorus on the great majority of soils, otherwise 
much of the nitrogen would be wasted; eventually 
it would become necessary to add potassium and 
lime also, because clover only turns over the mineral 
elements already in the soil, nitrogen being its only 
actual addition to the soil. 

Farming with manure — A part of the land in this 
last experiment has received each spring a dress- 
ing of open-yard manure, such manure as would be 
produced by cattle fed in open feed lots where the 
manure is exposed during the winter to the action of the 
weather. This manure has been applied at the rate 
of eight tons per acre, and has produced the increase 
over the unmanured land alongside shown below : 



Table LV. Fifteen- Year Average Increase an 
Acre from Eight Tons of Open-Yard Manure. 





Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
or hay- 
Pounds 


Com 


18.61 
9.49 


793 


Wheat . 


965 


Hav 


801 







PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 233 

The value of this increase would be $23.39 per 
acre for each rotation, or $6.80 annually, which 
would amount to $918 for our farm. 

There being 135 acres in our rotation, exclusive of 
land set aside for support of teams and other purposes, 
there would be 45 acres in each crop every season, thus 
requiring 360 tons of manure each year to give a 
dressing equivalent to that used in the experiment. 

Passing the farm crops through the open feed lot 
— The Ohio station's experiments show that an av- 
erage 1,000-pound steer, on a well-balanced fatten- 
ing ration, will consume in six months feeds con- 
taining about 4,000 pounds of dry substance, on 
which he should make a gain of about 360 pounds 
in live weight, and that in this time he will pro- 
duce about five tons of manure, inclusive of bedding, 
or about 2^ pounds of manure with bedding to each 
pound of dry substance consumed. 

To produce 360 tons of manure in six months' 
feeding would therefore require the feeding of 72 
cattle of 1,000 pounds average weight, and to feed 
these cattle would require feeds containing 288,000 
pounds of dry substance. 

Including the wheat, on the assumption that it 
may be exchanged for bran and oilmeal or similar 
feeds ; omitting the straw, and discarding one-third 
of the stover as waste, the crops receiving this 
dressing of yard manure have yielded dry substance 
at the rate of about 7,600 pounds per acre for each 
rotation, or 340,000 pounds for our farm, which 
would be more than sufficient to provide the re- 



^ 



234 FARM MANURES 

quired manure, were there no waste. But these and 
other experiments have shown that there is always 
a large loss of manurial elements when manure is 
exposed in this manner, and usually a loss of total 
weight, although sometimes the liquid manure is 
replaced by water from the clouds, so that there is 
apparently little if any reduction in total weight. 

The above estimate assumes that the corn is fed 
in the shock without husking, a method which 
involves less labor than that of husking and hand- 
ling the corn and stover separately, before hauling 
to market. The hay, also, is fed with less expense 
than it can be marketed, as if marketed it must be 
baled; so that this rough method of feeding, with 
hogs following the cattle, which is practiced by 
occasional farmers throughout the territory known 
as the "corn belt," puts the crops into market at the 
least possible expense. 

This method of management, however, involves 
the handling of feed daily throughout the winter, 
and the hauling of a large amount of manure in the 
early spring; hence it will be necessary for our 
farmer to keep help the year round, instead of only 
through the eight months of crop production. Cap- 
ital will also be required for purchasing the cattle, 
on which interest must be allowed for six months 
each season. These two items would raise the cost 
of production on a feeding farm by $150 — $60 for 
labor and $90 for interest — or to a total of $1,400. 

The expert stock feeder expects to get at least as 
much for his feed as it would bring in the market, 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 235 

without reference to the manure. Sometimes he 
will fail to accomplish this, but at other times he 
will make up the deficit. We are, therefore, justi- 
fied in rating the produce fed to stock at the same 
price it would have brought if sold in the market. 
Adding, therefore, the value of the increase pro- 
duced by the manure, $918, to the value of the un- 
manured yield, $1,665, we have a total of $2,583, 
from which must be deducted $1,400, as the cost of 
production, leaving a net balance of $1,183. 

Passing the crop through sheltered feeding pens 
— In another of the Ohio station's tests the manure 
has been hauled directly from the stable to the field 
instead of first passing through the barnyard. The 
increase from this manure, applied also at the rate 
of eight tons per acre, has been as follows : 



Table LVI. Fifteen-Year Average Increase an 
Acre from Eight Tons of Stall Manure. 





Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
or hay- 
Pounds 


Corn 


23.57 
10.88 


1,103 
1,121 
1 395 


Wheat 


Hay 







The increase in this case amounts in value to 
$26.48 per acre for each rotation, or to $8.83 annu- 
ally, or to a total of $1,192 for our farm, which, 
added to the unfertilized yield, gives a total value 
of production amounting to $2,857. 



236 FARM MANURES 

To produce this kind of manure requires feeding 
under shelter, but the building for the purpose need 
not be very expensive. A roof overhead, and a 
cemented floor under foot to hold the manure are the 
essentials; additional storage room for feed, includ- 
ing a silo and other conveniences, will pay a good 
interest on the investment. We may assume that 
the necessary addition to the buildings of our farm 
will cost $4,000, the interest on which will increase 
the annual expense account to $1,640, leaving a net 
gain of $1,217. 

Shock corn may be fed in a properly arranged 
feeding shed, and with much greater satisfaction 
than out of doors. It is true that the stalks will 
interfere with the easy handling of the manure, 
and for this reason it will pay, when the feeding 
operations are large enough to justify equipment 
for cutting by power, to cut or shred the stover. In 
fact, the question may well be raised whether the 
cost of storing and cutting the stover would not 
be much more than offset by the saving of labor in 
hauling in the crop from the field from day to day, 
as Is generally practiced in open-yard feeding. 

There is but one more disagreeable job on the 
farm than that of handling shock corn during a Jan- 
uary thaw, when each step sinks to the ankles in 
mud, and the team must be doubled to get out of the 
field with even part of a load, and that is the one 
of moving the same crop when the blizzard follow- 
ing the thaw has come, and the stalks have sunk into 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 237 

the ground and frozen there, so that they must be 
cut loose with a mattock. 

Considering the extra labor and exposure involved 
in this method of handling the crop, the injury to the 
land resulting from trampling it when soft, and the 
loss in value from exposure of the shocks for two 
or three months to the weather, there can be little 
doubt that the easiest and cheapest way to take 
care of the crop is to get it in during the dry weather 
of the fall, and house it or stack it near to the place 
of feeding. 

Farming with reinforced manure — In still another 
of the tests under consideration the manure has been 
treated with acid phosphate during accumulation, 
using the phosphate at the rate of 40 pounds to the 
ton of manure, or approximately a pound per day 
for each 1,000-pound animal; this manure has then 
been spread directly upon the land, as in the test 
previously described, and has produced the follow- 
ing increase: 



Table LVII. Fifteen-Year Average Increase an 
Acre from Eight Tons of Phosphated Stall 
Manure. 





Grain 
Bushels 


Stover, straw 
or hay- 
Pounds 


Com 


34.53 
16.31 


1,539 
1,692 
2,523 


Wheat 


Hay 





238 



FARM MANURES 



The value of the increase in this case has reached 
a total of $40.95 per acre for each rotation, or of 
$13.65 per acre annually, or of $1,842 for the farm, 
which, added to the value of the unfertilized yield, 
gives a total value amounting to $3,507. 

The total cost of the phosphate would be $65, 
which added to our previous estimate of $1,640 
raises the total cost of production to $1,705 and 
leaves a net income of $1,802. 

To recapitulate, the foregoing calculations are 
collected for comparison in Table LVIII. 



Table LVIII. Estimated Annual Income from 
Farm of 160 Acres Under Various Systems of 
Management. 



treatment 


Total value 
of produce 


Total cost 
of production 


Net gain 


Five-year rotation 


No fertilizer nor manure 

With acid phosphate 

" phosphate and potash. . 

" complete fertiUzer 


$1,430 
1,875 
2,090 
2,486 


$1,250 
1,315 
1,490 
1,844 


$180 
560 
600 
642 


Three-year rotation 


No fertilizer nor manure 

With ^ ard manure 

" fresh " 


$1,665 
2,583 
2,857 
3,507 


$1,250 
1,400 
1,640 
1,705 


$415 
1,183 
1,217 


" " " phosphated 


1,802 



Of course, the outcome deduced from the above 
calculations would never be exactly realized. 
Farms differ in their state of fertility — or of exhaus- 



PLANNING FOR FERTILITY MAINTENANCE 239 

tion; farmers differ in their capacity for manage- 
ment ; seasons differ, so that no two successive sea- 
sons, nor two successive lo-year periods, will give 
the same results ; the point is, that under the same 
conditions, land which has been farmed under the 
common five-year rotation — which, by the way, is 
a better plan than that pursued on a great many 
farms — is yielding at such a rate that the tenant who 
will not buy fertilizers for fear he may enrich an- 
other man's land will probably receive on the aver- 
age less for his year's work than the laborer whom 
he employs by the month gets for 8 months' work ; 
whereas the one who has not this fear may, on the 
same farm and under the same system of cropping, 
realize fair wages, while the man who has the capac- 
ity for handling live stock may double or treble 
the net income of the best fertilizer farmer, or mul- 
tiply that of the one first mentioned by ten. 

It is very true that the successful management of 
live stock requires ability of a much higher order 
than is necessary for fertilizer farming; to know 
how to buy and how to feed involves judgment, 
training and practical experience, and even the most 
skillful stockman will sometimes find that he would 
have done temporarily better if he had sold his crops 
instead of feeding them; but in the long run there 
can be no question that the farmer who understands 
and practices the keeping of live stock, and the 
production, preservation and use of manure, will 
secure a very much better income from the land, 
whether he owns it or rents it, than the one who 



240 FARM MANURES 

depends upon chemical fertilizers alone for the 
maintenance of the fertility of the soil ; while as for 
the farmer who undertakes to take everything from 
the land without making any restitution, his liberty 
will eventually be taken from him and he will be- 
come the servant of wiser men, either on the farm 
or elsewhere. 




Sweet clover on a test field of the Illinois Experiment Station. 



INDEX 



Page 
Agricultural classification of soils 16 
Alfalfa, accumulation of nitrogen 

by 204 

seeding to 205 

Alluvial soils 14 

Ames, J. W., analyses by.... 103, 147 
Ash constituents of manure, value 

of 139 

Ash of plants, components of. . . 26 

growth controlled by 34 

source of 28 

Atmospheric elements of plants.. 29 
Bacteria of the manure heap. 137, 151 

soil 17 

Barley, experiments with 116 

Beginning of life, the 7 

Buckwheat as a green manure.. 206 
Canada peas for green manuring 202 

Catch crops 199, 207 

fertilizing 211 

leguminous 212 

Cement floors, experiments 

on 100, 133 

Chemical combination, meaning of 27 
fertilizers, evanescent effect of 118 

Cisterns for manure 156 

Clouston, D., experiments by. . . 139 

Clover crop, feeding the 67 

manurial value of 200 

Composition of average crops. ... 41 
crop not a guide to fertilizing 43 

manure 81 

plants 24 

Corn crop, fertilizing the 46 

Cornell University Experiment 
Station, experiments at 

84, 94, 109, 141 
Com grown continuously, experi- 
ments on 48 

grown in rotation, experiments 

on 47 

lime for 52 

potassium for 51 

Cowpeas as a catch crop 212 

for green manuring 202 

Crimson clover as a catch crop.. 212 

Cycle of life, the 12 

Dominion experimental farms, 
experiments at 

44, 50, 144, 177, 188, 216 

Drift soils 15 

Drying manure, effect of 182 

Earth a cooling globe, the 1 

Farming without fertilizers or 

manure 223 



Page 

Farming with manure 232 

with phosphorus 225 

with phosphorus and potassium 226 
with phosphorus, potassium and 

nitrogen 227 

with reinforced manure 237 

Feeding of the plant, the 35 

the clover crop 67 

Fertility losses in grain produc- 
tion 166 

losses from permanent pastures 165 
Fertilizers on corn, experiments 

with 46 

'on oats, experiments with 57 

on wheat, experiments with.. 58 

First forms of life, the 17 

Frear, Prof. Wm., experiments by 163 

Grass crops, manuring 195 

Green manures 199 

Canada peas for 202 

cowpeas for 202 

souring land with 210 

sweet clover for 203 

Gypsum as a manure preserva- 
tive 175 

Hen manure 110 

preservation of 164 

Hogs following steers, production 

of manure by 103 

Hopkins, Dr. C. G., experiments 

by 213 

Humus, formation of 9 

Ice, action of in soil formation. . 3 
Illinois Experiment Station, ex- 
periments by 213 

India, manure experiments in... 139 

Inhabitants of the soil, the 17 

Kainit as a manure preservative. 175 
Kentucky Experiment Station, 

soil of 158 

Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh, investi- 
gations by 22 

Life, first forms of 17 

Lime, effect of on clover 66,71 

corn 52, 66 

oats and wheat 60,66 

Liming on limestone land 63 

Liquid manure, value of 184 

Loess soils 15 

Maine Experiment Station, experi- 
ments at 164 

Maintaining fertility with clover 

only 230 

Manure, analyses of 89 

composition of 81 



242 



INDEX 



Page 

Manure, cellars for 159 

cisterns and pits for 156 

fresh, vs. rotted manure 186 

fresh, vs. yard manure 128 

from dairy cows 84,89,95 

from hens 90 

from horses 89, 94 

from sheep 106 

from steers 90, 98 

losses from heating 136 

losses from leaching 140 

losses in drying 151 

losses in the feed lot 136 

losses in the stable 132 

losses in rotting 138 

methods of applying 182 

not a balanced ration for plants 218 

preservatives 160 

preserving in box stalls 155 

production of 94 

reinforcement of 129 

residual effect of 117 

sheds for 156 

solid and liquid, composition of 84 

spreader, the 152,184 

spreading in winter 185 

value of 112 

variation in composition of . . . . 87 
waste of 132 

Manuring corn 190 

grass crops 195 

meadows and pastures 197 

oats 192 

orchards 206 

potatoes 192 

wheat 193 

Massachusetts Experiment Station, 

soil of 158 

Melilotus for green manuring. . . 203 

at Rothamsted 204 

seeding to 205 

Methods of applying manure . . . 182 

Mineral basis of the soil 6 

Minnesota Experiment Station, ex- 
periments at 85 

New Jersey Experiment Station, 

experiments at 97,145 

New York State Experiment Sta- 
tion, experiments at 110 

Nitrification 18 

Nitrogen, comparison of carriers 

of 77 

in fertilizers too costly 230 

fixation of in plants 30 

of the soil, condition of 37 

of the soil, increase of by 
clover 217 

Oats crop, fertilizing the 57 

manuring the 192 

Ontario Agricultural College, ex- 
periments at 206 

Orchards, manuring 197 



Page 
Pennsylvania State College, ex- 
periments at 

44, 53, 57, 58, 63, 68, 71,75, 157 
Phosphorus of the soil, condition 

of 36 

Pigs, manure from 90, 109 

Planning the farm management 

for fertility maintenance.... 218 

Plant food, assimilation of 39 

combination essential 31 

condition of in the soil 35 

consumption of by average 

crops 39,42 

total store not an index to pro- 
ductiveness 38 

Plants, composition of 24,32 

Potassic fertilizers, effect of on 

corn 51 

Potassium of thw soil, condition 

of 35 

Potatoes, manuring 192 

Preservation of manure, the.... 151 
Rate of yield of different crops.. 191 
Reinforcement of manure. . . . 167, 176 

Residual soils 14 

Rothamsted experiments, the. 112, 204 

Rye as a catch crop 208 

Salt as a manure preservative... 176 
Shutt, Prof. F. T., experiments 

by 144, 151, 186,216 

Soil bacteria 17 

mineral basis of 6 

origin of 1 

size of particles of 11 

Soils, alluvial 14 

classification of 14, 16 

drift 15 

loess 15 

residual 14 

Soybeans as a catch crop 213 

for green manuring 202 

Spreading manure in winter 185 

Stall and yard manure, compari- 
son of 173 

Straw and stover per bushel of 

grain 191 

Sweet clover (see Melilotus), 

Symbiosis 21 

Vetch as a catch crop 212 

Voorhees, Prof. E. B., experi- 
ments by 97, 145 

Waste of manure in the United 

States 149 

Wheat crop, fertilizing the 58 

manuring the 193 

Wheat yields at Rothamsted 114 

Where to use manure 190 

Woburn experiments, the 120 

Worms, agency of, in soil forma- 
tion 8 

Yard and fresh manure compared 173 



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Farm Machinery and Farm Motors 

By J. B. Davidson and L. W. Chase. Farm Machinery 
and Farm Motors is the first American book published 
on the subject of Farm Machinery since that written by 
J. J. Thomas in 1867. This was before the development 
of many of the more important farm machines, and the 
general application of power to the work of the farm. 
Modern farm machinery is indispensable in present-day 
farming operations, and a practical book like Farm Ma- 
chinery and Farm Motors will fill a much-felt need. The 
book has been written from lectures used by the authors 
before their classes for several years, and which were pre- 
pared from practical experience and a thorough review of 
the literature pertaining to the subject. Although written 
primarily as a text-book, it is equally useful for the prac- 
tical farmer. Profusely illustrated. 5^x8 inches. 520 
pages. Cloth ... Net, $2.00 

The Book of Wheat 

By P. T. DoNDLiNGER. This book comprises a complete 
study of everything pertaining to wheat. It is the work 
of a student of economic as well as agricultural condi- 
tions, well fitted by the broad experience in both practical 
and theoretical lines to tell the whole story in a condensed 
form. It is designed for the farmer, the teacher, and the 
student as well. Illustrated. 5]/2x8 inches. 370 pages. 

Cloth Net, $2.00 

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The Cereals in America 

By Thomas F. Hunt, M.S., D.Agri., Professor of Agron- 
omy, Cornell University. If you raise five acres of any kind 
of grain you cannot afford to be without this book. It is in 
every way the best book on the subject that has ever been 
written. It treats of the cultivation and improvement of every 
grain crop raised in America in a thoroughly practical and 
accurate manner. The subject-matter includes a comprehen- 
sive and succinct treatise of wheat, maize, oats, barley, rye,' 
rice, sorghum (kafir corn) and buckwheat, as related particu- 
larly to American conditions. First-hand knowledge has been 
the policy of the author in his work, and every crop treated is 
presented in the light of individual study of the plant. If you 
have this book you have the latest and best that has been 
written upon the subject. Illustrated. 450 pages. 55^x8 
inches. Cloth $1.75 

The Forage and Fiber Crops in America 

By Thomas F. Hunt. This book is exactly what its title 
indicates. It is indispensable to the farmer, student and 
teacher who wishes all the latest and most important informa- 
tion on the subject of forage and fiber crops. Like its famous 
companion, "The Cereals in America," by the same author, it 
treats of the cultivation and improvement of every one of the 
forage and fiber crops. With this book in hand, you have 
the latest and most up-to-date information available. Illus- 
trated. 428 pages. 5j^x8 inches. Cloth $i.75 

The Book of Alfalfa 

History, Cultivation and Merits. Its Uses as a Forage 
and Fertilizer. The appearance of the Hon. F. D. Coburn's 
little book on Alfalfa a few years ago has been a profit revela- 
tion to thousands of farmers throughout the country, and the 
increasing demand for still more information on the subject 
has induced the author to prepare the present volume, which 
is by far the most authoritative, complete and valuable work 
on this forage crop published anywhere. It is printed on fine 
paper and illustrated with many full-page photographs that 
were taken with the especial view of their relation to the text. 
336 pages. 6^ x 9 inches. Bound in cloth, with gold stamp- 
ing. It is unquestionably the handsomest agricultural refer- 
ence book that has ever been issued. Price, postpaid, . $2.00 

Clean Milk 

By S. D. Belcher, M.D, In this book the author sets forth 
practical methods for the exclusion of bacteria from milk, 
and how to prevent contamination of milk from the stable 
to the consumer. Illustrated. 5x7 inches. 146 pages. 
Cloth $100 



Successful Fruit Culture 

By Samuel T. Maynard. A practical guide to the culti- 
vation and propagation of Fruits, written from the standpoint 
of the practical fruit grower who is striving to make his 
business profitable by growing the best fruit possible and at 
the least cost. It is up-to-date in every particular, and covers 
the entire practice of fruit culture, harvesting, storing, mar- 
keting, forcing, best varieties, etc., etc. It deals with principles 
first and with the practice afterwards, as the foundation, prin- 
ciples of plant growth and nourishment must always remain 
the same, while practice will vary according to the fruit 
grower's immediate conditions and environments. Illustrated. 
265 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $i.og 

Plums and Plum Culture 

By F. A. Waugh. A complete manual for fruit growers, 
nurserymen, farmers and gardeners, on all known varieties 
of plums and their successful management. This book marks 
an epoch in the horticultural literature of America. It is a 
complete monograph of the plums cultivated in and indigenous 
to North America. It will be found indispensable to the 
scientist seeking the most recent and authoritative informa- 
tion concerning this group, to the nurseryman who wishes to 
handle his varieties accurately and intelligently, and to the 
cultivator who would like to grow plums successfully. Illus- 
trated. 391 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.50 

Fruit Harvesting, Storing, Marketing 

By F. A. Waugh. A practical guide to the picking, stor- 
ing, shipping and marketing of fruit. The principal subjects 
covered are the fruit market, fruit picking, sorting and pack- 
ing, the fruit storage, evaporation, canning, statistics of the 
fruit trade, fruit package laws, commission dealers and deal- 
ing, cold storage, etc., etc. No progressive fruit grower can 
afford to be without this most valuable book. Illustrated. 
232 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.00 

Systematic Pomology 

By F. A. Waugh, professor of horticulture and landscape 
gardening in the Massachusetts agricultural college, formerly 
of the university of Vermont. This is the first book in the 
English language which has ever made the attempt at a com- 
plete and comprehensive treatment of systematic pomology. 
It presents clearly and in detail the whole method by which 
fruits are studied. The book is suitably illustrated. 288 
pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth $1.00 

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Rural School Agriculture 

By Charles W. Davis. A book intended for the use of 
both teachers and pupils. Its aim is to enlist the interest of 
the boys of the farm and awaken in their minds the fact that 
the problems of the farm are great enough to command all the 
brain power they can summon. The book is a manual of exer- 
cises covering many phases of agriculture, and it may be used 
with any text-book of agriculture, or without a text-book. The 
exercises will enable the student to think, and to work out the 
scientific principles underlying some of the most important 
agricultural operations. The author feels that in the teaching 
of agriculture in the rural schools, the laboratory phase is al- 
most entirely neglected. If an experiment helps the pupil to 
think, or makes his conceptions clearer, it fills a useful pur- 
pose, and eventually prepares for successful work upon the 
farm. The successful farmer of the future must be an experi- 
menter in a small way. Following many of the exercises are a 
number of questions which prepare the way for further re- 
search work. The material needed for performing the experi- 
ments is simple, and can be devised by the teacher and pupils, 
or brought from the homes. Illustrated. 300 pages. Cloth. 
5x7 inches $1.00 

Agriculture Through the Laboratory and School 
Garden 

By C. R. Jackson and Mrs. L. S. Daugherty. As its name 
implies, this book gives explicit directions for actual work in 
the laboratory and the school garden, through which agri- 
cultural principles may be taught. The author's aim has been 
to present actual experimental work in every phase of the 
subject possible, and to state the directions for such work so 
that the student can perform it independently of the teacher, 
and to state them in such a way that the results will not be 
suggested by these directions. One must perform the experi- 
ment to ascertain the result. It embodies in the text a com- 
prehensive, practical, scientific, yet simple discussion of such 
facts as are necessary to the understanding of many of the 
agricultural principles involved in every-day life. The book, 
although primarily intended for use in schools, is equally 
valuable to any one desiring to obtain in an easy and pleasing 
manner a general knowledge of elementary agriculture. Fully 
illustrated. 5J-^ x 8 inches. 462 pages. Cloth. Net . $1.50 

Soil Physics Laboratory Guide 

By W. G. Stevenson and I. O. Schaub. A carefully out- 
lined series of experiments in soil physics. A portion of the 
experiments outlined in this guide have been used quite gen- 
erally in recent years. The exercises (of which there are 40) 
are listed in a logical order with reference to their relation 
to each other and the skill required on the part of the student. 
Illustrated. About 100 pages. 5x7 inches. Cloth. . $0.50 

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^lAY 24 1913 



